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THE 


SILVER    DOLLAR 


Business    View 


BY 


COL.  ED.  F.  BROWNE 


THE  CHAIN  &  HARDY  CO.,  PUBLISHERS: 

I)  !•;  N  V  I'.  K  . 


#  » 


COPYRIGHT,   1S9;, 
BY 

ED.  F.  BROWNE 


•  •  • 

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«  e  «      «    • 


C   «        €,• 


'  •  •    «  •  •  a 


PRKKACK. 


^ 


This  pamphlet  presents  some  business  facts  that  should  be 

yjcarefully  looked  over  by  every  num  in  the  United  States.     The 

CuAmerican  is  usually  a   very  busy  man,  and  frequently  allows 

himself  to  form  opinions  on  subjects  that  should  be  of  {general 

cc interest    by  hurriedly  absorbing   the  ideas   presented   by  the 

cc "press"  of  hio  localitv,  and  accepting  its  idea  as  his  own.     If 

"those  ideas  are  wrong  ones,  either  through  the  ignorance,  or, 

possibly,  purchased  bias  of  his  editorial  preceptor,  lie  should 

take  any  opportunity  presented  to  correct  them,  and,  at  any 

-  rate,  read  on  both  sides  of  any  subject  that  would  have  a  direct 

effect  on  his  future  prosperity  and  happiness. 
^  This  is  a  government  "of  the  people  by  the  people,"  and  we 
~'  all,  in  our  weak  way,  assist  in  directing  public  affairs,  and  wc 
should  so  inform  ourselves  as  to  be  able  to  intelligently  cast  a 
\  vote  for  that  which  will  do  our  country  good, 
y  The  press  wields  a  great  power  in  this  land.  We  have  seen 
r  it  stampede  voters  at  times  into  positions  that  developments 
«    later  on  showed  were  entirely  wrong. 

The  present  overwhelming  majority  in  Congress  was  the 
result  of  a  stampede  of  voters  c  auscd  by  the  furore  that  the 
press  raised  over  the  McKinlcy  bill  before  it  was  tried  or  un- 
derstood by  the  people  at  all. 

The  Eastern  press,  l)y  concerted  action,  has  done  about  llic 
same  thing  in  regard  to  the  "Silver  Question." 

It  has  suppressed  tlic  inihliratioii  of  one  side  of  the  ([uos- 
tion  and  flooded  the  country  with  views  antagonistic  to  silver. 
In  this  thing,  they  have  overdone  it,  from  the  fad  that  it  w;i> 
made  evident  that  the  New  York  U'or/f/anii  New  York  Tribune 
were  being  paid  by  parties  antagonistic  to  silver,  and  no  doubt 
m.iny  others  were  subidi/ed.  If  a  majority  of  tlie  press  hon- 
cstlv  w;>-  :,,, posed  to  silver,  it  might  possibly  express  an  opin- 
ion of  a  majority,  but  when  its  opinion  is  paid  for,  or  iiiliini- 
(l.ilcd  by  moneyed  interests,  the  people  should  examine  <:loscly 
all  the  fnrts  presented. 


.'i89lil2 


2  PREFACE. 

Now,  the  "Silver  Question"  is  a  simple  business  proposition, 
as  I  hope  in  this  pamphlet  to  show  in  a  plain  and  straightfor- 
ward way,  so  that  any  man  can  understand  its  importance  to 
the  country  and  to  himself.  No  man  wishes  to  make  a  mis- 
take on  any  important  issue,  as  we  all  want  to  make  our 
country  the  greatest,  the  best  and  most  happy  on  the  globe. 

The  figures  presented  are  from  the  most  reliable  data  furn- 
ished by  the  Treasury  Department.  The  arguments  that  are 
presented  therefrom  can  be  criticised,  but  they  are  the  honest 
opinions  of  one  who  believes  in  this  country,  and  who,  while 
inviting  criticism,  has  been  able  to  meet  all  opponents  with 
facts  to  back  up  the  arguments  presented. 

If  silver  money  is  right,  let  us  have  it;  if  wrong,  do  not  con- 
tinue it  another  day. 

Taking  a  business  man's  view  of  the  "Silver  Question," 
obliges  us  to  analyze  our  trade  with  other  countries  and  demon- 
strate the  effect  of  any  action  we  take  in  the  matter  of  our  ex- 
changes with  them.  I  have  compiled  tables  that,  in  a  concise 
way,  show  our  balances  to  and  from  all  the  world,  and  also  in 
what  way  they  were  paid.  If  in  coin,  how  much;  and  in  addi- 
tion, I  call  attention  to  some  features  of  our  importations  that 
prove  interesting  and  instructive. 

All  that  is  required  to  make  converts  to  the  cause  of  silver 
is,  to  get  at  the  facts  and  think  them  over. 

The  Author. 


CHAPTER  I. 


HISTORICAL. 


THE  USE  OF  SILVER  AND  GOLD  AS  MONEY,  AND  WHY. 

There  are  good  reasons  why  silver  and  gold  should  be  used 
as  coin  or  tokens  of  value,  and  why  they  dis,  'ace  all  other 
metals  in  that  use. 

For  the  purpose  of  coinage,  it  is  necessary  that  the  metal 
should  be  as  nearly  indestructible  as  possible,  and  those  metals 
that  have  that  property  more  than  others,  in  chemistry,  are 
classed  as  "Royal  or  Noble  Metals."  While  there  are,  at  the 
present  time,  quite  a  number  of  these  metals,  all  except  gold 
and  silver  arc  recent  discoveries. 

Thus:  Platinum,  discovered  by  Wood;  Irridiuin,  by  Ten- 
nant  and  Descatels;  Palladium,  by  Wolaston;  Osmium,  by 
Tennant,  &c.,  &c. 

The  discoverer  of  gold  and  silver  is  not  known;  however, 
these  two  "Royal  .Metals"  come  down  to  us  from  the  Ancients 
and  evidently  are  the  metals  intended  by  nature  to  represent 
"value."  In  ancient  times  gold  was^ot  used  as  money;  silver 
was  the  only  money  metal. 

The  word  silver  is  (Icrivcil  from  the  llel)rew,  and  it^>  ihimm- 
ing  is  "money." 

The  Egyptian  sign  for  silver  was  the  crescent;  it  was  the 
moon  of  minerals. 

While  the  word  gold  is  also  from  llic  lkl)rew,  it  means  "to 
be  clear,  or,  to  shine."  I  he  l"-gyi)tian  sign  was  the  circle  with 
a  dot  in  the  center;  it  was  the  sun  of  minerals,  and  signilied 
"perfection."  It  was  not  connected  with  the  value  of  other 
commodities,  or  with  coin,  by  the  Ancients. 

The  Greeks  first  used  gold  as  money,  but  they  united  it  with 
silver,  calling  it  "clectrum,"  and  on  nuggets  thus  formed  they 
stamped  the  value,  the  great  trading  firms  guaranteeing  its 
worth. 


HISTORICAL. 


While  other  metals  have  been  used  as  coin,  it  was  only  as  a 
convenience  and  used  the  same  as  wampum,  paper,  elephants' 
tusks  and  otter  skins,  in  emergencies,  when  no  royal  metals 
could  be  obtained. 

There  never  has  been  a  race  of  benighted  heathens  l)ut 
what  realized  the  importance  of  silver  as  a  medium  of  ex- 
change, when  they  possessed  it. 

Silver  was  recognized  by  the  whole  world  as  money  until 
this  century,  when  England  commenced  the  demonetization 
mania. 

It  was  the  fact  that  silver  and  gold  are  indestructable  by 
fire  or  water,  or  air,  that  caused  them  to  be  used  as  coin,  to  the 
practical  exclusion  of  everything  else. 

HOW  THE  RATIO  OF  VALUES  HAS  BEEN  DETERMINED. 

Until  the  demonetization  of  silver  in  1873,  neither  of  the 
precious  metals  had  an  "intrinsic  value,"  and  to-day  gold  has 
no  such  value. 

Chemically  considered,  the  intrinsic  value  of  gold  over 
silver  would  be  about  eight  to  one.  Principally  on  account  of 
its  specific  gravity  and  malleability,  but  it  has  never  been  thus 
considered  since  the  time  of  the  Greeks. 

There  has  been  no  time  since  five  hundred  years  before 
Christ  but  what  the  value  of  gold  has  been  determined  by  law, 
and  law  alone. 

The  rulers  of  Greece  about  five  hundred  years  before 
Christ,  by  a  decree  declared  that  gold  was  worth  thirteen  times 
as  much  as  silver. 

The  Roman  Emperors  changed  that  ratio  to  from  nine  to 
one  to  fourteen  to  one.  As  late  as  the  fifteenth  century  at  one 
time  in  France,  they  were,  by  law,  made  of  equal  value. 

Until  the  present  century  the  ratio  of  values  between  the 
two  metals  was  regulated  in  exact  opposition  to  the  "supply- 
and-demand"  theory. 

The  Greeks  had  established  the  ratio  of  thirteen  to  one,  but 
when  the  gold  mines  of  Spain,  Gaul  and  Pannonia  gave  out, 
the  Romans  changed  the  ratio  to  eleven  to  one,  and  even  nine  to 
one — thus  on  to  1497,  when  we  find  the  ratio  was  ten  and 
three-fourths  to  one. 

In  1546,  Spain  declared  the  ratio  ot  thirteen  and  one-half  to 


HISTORICAL. 


one,  because  up  to  that  time  she,  in  her  conquests,  had  obtained 
more  gold  than  silver. 

Portugal,  upon  taking  possession  of  Brazil,  and  despoiling 
the  East  Indias  of  their  gold,  advanced  the  ratio  to  sixteen  to 
one.  This  was  done  in  1688,  and  at  that  time,  Portugal  had 
much  more  gold  than  silver,  and  she,  having  supremacy  in 
trade,  changed  the  ratio  so  as  to  injure  Spain,  who,  at  that 
time,  was  accumulating  silver. 

Spain  again  got  control  of  finances  and  changed  the  ratio 
to  fifteen  and  one-half  to  one  in  1775,  which  was  adopted  by 
France  in  1785  and  maintained  ever  since.  Spain,  in  this 
change,  failed  to  include  the  Colonies,  and  there  is  where  our 
ratio  of  sixteen  to  one  originates.  It  was  the  little,  insignifi- 
cant nation  Portugal  that  established  the  ratio  that  rules  in 
this  country  to-day. 

Thus  for  two  thousand  years  before  the  present  century  you 
will  notice  that  each  nation,  as  it  got  control  of  the  precious 
metals,  by  law  declared  their  value  and  maintained  it  until 
some  more  powerful  nation  took  financial  precedence.  .  And  in 
each  instance  it  will  be  noticed  that  tiie  advance  of  the  relative 
value  of  either  metal  was  in  direct  opposition  lo  ilir  ordinary 
rule  of  supply  and  demand.  When  gold  was  plenty,  it  was 
marked  up,  and  when  it  was  scarce,  it  was  marked  down.  The 
theory  was  to  keep  enough  value  in  the  precious  metals  to  sup- 
ply the  wants  of  currency,  and  each  nation,  as  soon  as  it  se- 
cured control  of  the  great  balance  of  trade,  took  it  upon  itself 
to  establish  the  value  of  the  metals.  In  other  words,  the  rela- 
tive value  of  gf)ld  and  silver  for  two  thousand  years  before  the 
present  century  was  in  exact  reverse  from  what  would  \n-  oc- 
casioned by  supply  and  dtinand. 

VAUK  OF  GOLD  ONLY  KEGULATED  BY  LAW. 

The  idea  of  the  mono-mctalist  that  gold  has  a  specific 
value  nearly  ;ipproaching  its  present  worth  is  remarkable 
when  examined  closely.  Tlie  intrinsic  value  of  goM  is  a  myth. 
No  man  can  know  or  guess  it  any  more  than  he  could  know 
any  abstract  proposition  with  notliing  to  base  his  guess  upon. 

The  reason  gold  has  a  value  whi<  li  is  st.ibic  is  because  the 
Bank  Charter  Act  of  1844  obliges  the  Hank  of  Kngland  lo 
purchase  all  gold  offered  it  at  a  fraction    under  its  coinage, 


HISTORICAL. 


value,  i.  c,  £2,  17s.,   lo'^d.  per  ounce,  and  the  bank  usually 
pays  ^3,  17s.,  gd.  for  all  gold  presented. 

Now,  it  is  this  law,  and  it  alone,  which  has  made  gold  steady 
in  price  since  that  time.  If  we  were  to  allow  England  to  dictate 
finances  to  us  for  all  time,  it  might  be  well  not  to  change,  but 
remain  on  a  gold  basis,  blindly  following  English  dictations 
However,  I  have  already  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  each 
nation,  as  it  secured  the  balance  of  trade,  and  accumulated  the 
bulk  of  coin  in  use,  assumed  to  dictate  to  the  world  (and  suc- 
cessfully, too,)  its  value,  and  maintain  the  same.  It  is  a  right 
that  has  been  assumed  by  every  nation  for  the  past  2,300  years, 
and  is  an  unwritten  law  of  nations. 

England,  at  the  battle  of  Trafalgar,  took  possession  of  the 
seas,  and  the  great  commerce  of  the  world  fell  into  her  lap. 
The  balance  of  trade  had  cast  the  mantle  of  form  and  great- 
ness on  Greece,  Venice,  Italy,  Spain  and  Portugal  successively, 
and  at  the  beginning  of  the  present  century,  little  Holland  was 
a  greater  financial  power  than  England. 

This  battle,  that  cost  the  great  Nelson  his  life,  was  what 
made  England  great,  and  securing  the  balance  of  trade,  as 
was  the  custom  of  history,  she  assumed  to  dictate  values  of 
the  precious  metals.  Having  no  silver,  she  adopted  the  gold 
standard,  intending  to  strike  a  blow  at  Spain  and  Portugal,  and 
after  floundering  through  panic  after  panic,  in  1844  adopted 
the  law  I  have  mentioned  heretofore,  viz.,  obligmg  the  Bank  of 
England  to  buy  all  gold  offered  it,  paying  therefor  in  notes. 

England,  in  thus  assuming  dictation  in  finances,  only  fol- 
lowed in  the  footsteps  of  every  great  nation  since  history  be- 
gan. Her  move  was  not  as  wise  as  her  predecessors',  and  her 
time  of  supremacy  is  now  drawing  to  a  close,  and  it  is  time  for 
the  United  States  to  assert  herself  and  assume  control. 

COINS  AND  THEIR  USES. 

It  became  early  understood  that  a  medium  of  exchange 
was  necessary,  and  coins  were  made  of  silver  to  represent 
value.  First,  the  great  commercial  houses  issued  the  coin, 
guaranteeing  value,  but  soon  the  rulers  of  the  nations  stamped 
the  coins,  declared  their  value  and  made  it  good,  even  if  it  had 
to  be  fought  for. 

The  coin  of  Caesar  was  good  the  whole  world  over :  if  it  was 
not,  he  would  know  the  reason  why,  as  soon  as  he  could  get  an. 


HISTORICAL. 


.army  in  that  direction.  Until  1666,  this  whole  coinage  business 
was  done  by  the  ruler  of  the  country,  and  he  arbitrarily  de- 
clared the  value  of  the  coins,  and  made  any  seigniorage  there 
was  in  it.  But  at  that  time,  the  growth  of  great  mercantile 
houses  had  placed  even  kings  in  the  hands  of  the  merchants, 
and  it  was  changed  so  the  ruler  had  power  to  declare  the  value 
and  coin  the  money,  but  the  owners  of  the  bullion  had  the 
right  to  obtain  coin  upon  paying  the  government  charge  for 
such  coinage. 

.    Since  that  time  it  has  been  the  intention  of  all  governments 
to  keep  this  form  of  obtaining  money. 

It  was  at  that  early  day  recognized  that  a  government 
should  not  make  anything  off  its  people  by  emitting  coin 
from  its  mint.     It  was  so  intended  by  our  Constitution. 

The  framers  of  our  Constitution  would  turn  over  in  their 
graves  if  they  thought  it  had  been  perverted  so  that  this  great 
and  powerful  government  could  conspire  against  her  laborers 
and  miners,  and  depress  the  price  of  bullion,  buying  it  and 
coining  the  money,  to  make  a  great  profit  thereby. 

Let  us  see  exactly  what  the  Constitution  says  on  the  subject. 
Section  8.  in  defining  the  duties  of  Congress,  says:  "Coin 
money,  regulate  the  value  thereof,  and  of  foreign  coin."  *  * 
And  in  duties  of  States,  Section  10,  it  prohibits  the  States  from 
"making  anything  but  gold  and  silver  coin  a  tender  in  |)ay- 
ment  of  debts." 

The  power  of  a  government  to  purchase  bullion,  and  make 
coins,  has  not  been  in  existence  since  16C/).  I'.ngland  docs  not 
do  it  to-day.  The  language  of  the  Constitution  i)l,iiiiiy  intends 
exactly  what  it  says.  Congress  can  coin  money,  but  only  as  an 
agent  of  the  people.  The  laws  regulating  the  mint  plainly 
show  it  was  only  the  intention  to  coin  bullion  as  a  factor,  not  as 
a  principal. 

It  is  an  implied  violation  of  the  Constitution  for  tluin  lo 
purchase  bullion  at  all. 

The  prime  use  of  coin  is  to  pay  debts;  it  is  a  token  stamped  l)y 
the  government  showing  that  the  party  who  possesses  it  should 
be  credited  with  a  certain  amount.  It  is  not  intended  to  repre- 
sent any  value  other  than  its  .?/<//;//•  represents.  It  is  made  of 
silver  and  gold  because  they  are  indeslru(  lible. 

Congress,  under  the  Constitution  can  declare  its  value,  and 


1 


8  HISTORICAL. 

that  makes  it  good.  Congress  could  declare  371 X  grains  or  ten 
grains  to  be  worth  a  dollar,  if  stamped  properly  at  the  mints. 
Just  as  the  Supreme  Court  has  decided  the  Government  has  the 
right  to  print  a  piece  of  paper,  worth  the  fraction  of  a  cent, 
and  call  it  worth  $100,  in  the  greenback  decision. 

The  only  difference  is,  that  one  is  a  loan  to  the  Government 
while  the  other  becomes  the  money. 

I  thus  have  gone  over  the  history  in  a  hurried  way  to  im- 
press on  the  reader's  mind: 

First.  That  the  precious  metals  had  positively  only  such 
value  as  had  been  declared  by  law  until  the  demonetization  of 
1873,  aiid  thus  to-day  the  laws  of  England  maintain  the  value 
of  gold. 

Second.  That  each  nation,  as  its  turn  of  power  came,  and 
upon  finding  that  its  balances  of  trade  put  it  in  an  independent 
position  (since  history  began),  has  assumed  to  declare  the  value 
of  the  precious  metals,  and.  oblige  the  world  to  respect  that 
declaration. 

Third.  That  the  ratio  established  by  such  powerful  nation 
is  merely  a  creation  of  the  law,  and  that  the  coin  is  merely  an 
indestructible  memento  representing  a  value,  to  be  legally 
credited  to  a  debtor. 


CHAPTER  II. 


DEMONETIZATION 


In  the  historical  chapter  I  have  called  attention  to  the  fact 
that  England,  early  in  the  present  century,  became  mistress  of 
the  seas.  This  greatness  came  on  England  when  she  was  in 
poverty,  comparatively.  She  had  neither  gold  or  silver,  but  it 
was  a  nation  of  smart  and  progressive  men. 

They  recognized  that  some  plan  must  be  devised  to  meet 
the  emergency,  and  their  first  effort  was  paper  currency,  as 
they  had  neither  of  the  precious  metals.  They  adopted  the 
gold  standard  because  their  enemies,  the  Spaniards,  had  great 
silver  mines,  and  they  thought  that  they  could  cripple  Spain 
more  in  this  way  than  any  other.  Gold  had  never  been  coined 
in  England  until  1257,  and  from  1709  to  1797  gold  had  ruled  at 
a  premium  for  fifty  years  of  the  eighty-eight,  and  it  continued 
to  rule  at  a  premium  until  1823,  although  the  coinage  laws  had 
been  passed  in  1774.  The  paper  money  they  had  issued,  and 
tiie  extraordinarily  small  base  of  credit  afforded  by  a  gold 
standard,  brought  disaster  after  disaster  to  their  finances. 
Panics  in  1784,  1793,  1810,  1819,  1826  and  1836  filled  the  poor- 
houses  of  England.  In  1839  the  Bank  of  ICngland  borrowed 
$10,000,000  of  French  banks  to  save  itself,  the  same  as  it  did  in 
iSgl,  and  at  that  time,  [839,  there  would  have  been  a  panic,  but 
the  country  was  already  paralyzed,  through  the  contraction  of 
credits,  so  that  there  was  no  occasion  for  a  panic.  In  1844,  Sir 
Robert  Feel,  in  his  Hank  Charter  Act,-  made  it  obligatory  on 
the  Hank  of  England  to  buy  all  gold  offered  it  at  llic  piii  t-  1 
have  (|Uoted. 

The  ablest  linaiu  iers  of  thai  day  appeared  before  the  com- 
mittee and  protested  against  the  act.  The  elder  F?aring 
called  attention  to  the  fact  that  such  an  obligation  on  the  part 
of  the  bank  wf)ul(l,  ultimately,  create  disaster,  because,  as  ^old 
would  be  furnished  freely,  the  ijank  would  issue  notes,  thus  in- 


lo  DEMONETIZATION. 


creasing  the  currency,  making  money  plenty  and  interest  low, 
inducing  speculation,  and  that  when  the  balance  of  trade  went 
against  them,  the  bank  would  have  to  ship  the  gold  and  call  in 
its  notes,  doubly  contracting  the  currency,  raising  the  rate  of 
interest,  and  thus  bring  disaster  to  the  commercial  world. 

In  1847  '^^^  1856  the  exact  thing  occurred  that  Baring  pre- 
dicted. Failure  of  crops  drained  the  bank  of  its  gold,  and  the 
bank  ruined  its  customers  to  save  itself.  Historians  have  said 
that  the  Bank  Charter  Act  of  1844  should  be  entitled:  "An 
Act  for  the  better  securing  the  inflammation  of  speculation  in 
periods  of  prosperity  and  the  entire  destruction  of  credits  in 
periods  of  adversity." 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  paper  money  was  a  resort  by  Eng- 
land because  it  was  a  necessity  and  not  because  of  any  great 
financial  wit,  and  it  was  only  after  hard  knocks  and  great  dis- 
aster that  England  got  her  finances  down  to  a  point  that  they 
fitted  the  gold  standard;  and  that  'whe7i  she  got  t/iere,  England 
-was  one  of  the  best  cottntries  to  emigrate  from  on  the  face  of  the 
globe.  Thus  came  the  rise  of  the  paper  money  advocates,  and 
it  is  a  new  thing  in  finance,  that  has  had  the  trial  of  ninety 
years,  while  bimetalism  and  the  use  of  silver  as  money  dates 
back  of  history. 

NEW  SCHOOL  OF  FINANCES. 

This  move  of  England's  has  brought  out  a  new  school  of 
finance.  It  developed  the  fact  that  the  Bank  of  England,  by 
controlling  the  currency,  could  dictate  to  the  commercial  world 
as  long  as  England  controlled  the  balance  of  trade. 

That  by  basing  currency  only  on  gold,  it  could  be  kept 
within  a  limited  amount,  and  that  the  Bank  of  England  could 
better  control  the  rates  of  interest. 

Before  1861,  the  English  financiers  had  recognized  in  the 
United  States  their  future  rival  for  commercial  supremacy,  and 
this  was  the  reason  why  they  allowed  the  Confederate  cruisers 
to  clear  the  ocean  of  our  merchant  fleet,  outfitting  them  and 
conniving  at  our  maritine  destruction.  England  had  witnessed 
the  result  of  our  great  gold  discoveries,  and  in  1873  learned  of 
the  great  silver  discoveries,  and  feared  our  power  in  the  finan- 
cial world. 

The  civil  war  had  put  us  largely  in  debt.  We  owed  Europe, 
by  the  most  careful  estimates,  §2,500,000,000. 


DEMONETIZATION.  ir 

England,  recognizing  the  greal  power  of  the  United  States, 
when  "united,"  and  seeing  that  something  must  be  done  to 
check  our  greatness,  realizing  that  since  the  world  began  the 
nation  that  was  the  richest  and  most  powerful  dictated  finance, 
was  audacious  enough  to  come  right  to  Washington  and  strike 
us  down  in  the  house  of  our  friends. 

They  thought  they  could  check  our  advance  to  commercial 
supremacy  by  demonetizing  our  silver. 

The  Banker  s  Magazine  of  August,  1878,  contained  the  fol- 
lowing statement,  which  has  never  been  refuted: 

"  In  1873,  silver  being  demonetized  in  Germany,  England 
and  Holland,  a  capital  of  ^100,000  ($500,000)  was  raised  and 
Ernest  Seyd,  of  London,  was  sent  to  this  country  with  this  fund 
as  the  agent  of  the  foreign  bondholders  and  capitalists  to  effect 
the  same  object." 

I  am  not  writing  from  a  political  standpoint,  so  I  don't  in- 
tend to  go  over  the  wrongs  of  Congress.  You  can  see  that  this 
was  a  straight  business  proposition,  and  I  don't  blame  the  Eng- 
lish bankers  for  doing  it,  and  as  in  this  whole  discussion  on  the 
silver  question,  others  have  taken  up  the  political  features  and 
elaborated  at  length  upon  them,  I  do  not  care  to  employ  them. 

Suffice  it  to  say,  Mr.  Seyd  evidently  "put  his  money  where 
it  would  do  the  most  good,"  and  silver  was  demonetized,  and  a 
Senator,  and  afterwards  Secretary  of  tin.-  Treasury,  by  close 
and  careful  living,  saved  up  several  million  of  dollars  out  of  a 
salary  of  $5,000  per  year,  and  is  the  head  and  front  of  the  op- 
position to  silver  coinage  to-day. 

He  and  the  succeeding  Secretaries  of  the  Treasury  are 
sticklers  for  the  use  of  paper  money,  and,  aping  after  their 
English  masters,  insist  that  gold  should  be  the  only  represent- 
ative of  value. 

Because  England,  in  a  great  emergency,  by  purest  accident, 
had  to  use  paper  money,  these  new  experimenters  in  finance 
assume  that  it  is  the  only  money  that  should  be  used.  It  is  like 
the  man  that  would  ape  the  linii)  of  Ri<hard  III.  and  assume 
that  it  is  better  than  nature  because  it  is  like  the  king.  Paper 
money  is  an  experiment  not  one  hundred  years  old.  Wo  had 
better,  while  we  can,  get  bark  to  tried  financial  ways. 

Why  should  this  great  roiintry,  with  the  control  of  the  stock 
of  the  precious  metals,  and  the  largest  producer  thereof,  have 


12  DEMONETIZATION. 


nnc  dollar  of  paper  money  not  backed  by  precious  metal? 
Why  should  we  "kite  "  our  financial  system  when  it  is  not  nec- 
essary? It  puts  us  in  a  ridiculous  lijjht  as  financiers.  It  would 
be  a  smart  thing  if  we  ]uid  to  make  paper  do  as  money,  to 
succeed,  as  England  did  in  her  emergency,  and  as  we  did  dur- 
ing the  war.  But  it  is  dishonest  for  us  to  do  it  now  and  degrade 
one  of  the  precious  metals  with  paper,  when  we  ourselves  pro- 
duce more  silver  than  other  any  nation  in  the  world,  and  are 
more  interested  than  all  the  world  in  maintaining  its  value. 

AMERICA  FOLLOWING  ENGLAND'S  DICTATION. 

^  The  fact  is,  our  financiers  (so-called),  to  a  great  extent,  are 
mere  "tailers,"  men  who  follow  their  leader  and  do  not  consider 
for  themselves  any  of  the  abstract  propositions  of  finance  or 
trade.  The  present  generation  happens  to  have  been  born  in 
a  time  when  England  was  great  and  prosperous  and  assumes 
that  anything  English  in  finance  is  correct. 

They  overlook  the  fact  that  a  Frenchman  laughs  at  a  per- 
son that  advances  English  views  of  finance  to-day,  and  that 
before  the  battle  of  Trafalgar,  a  Hollander,  Spaniard  or  Portu- 
guese would  have  considered  you  an  idiot  to  suggest  the  theories 
of  England's  finances  as  of  weight.  But  from  this  trait  in  man 
to-day  a  great  many  men,  when  a  financial  proposition  is  pre- 
sented, condemn  it  at  once  it  it  opposes  English  ideas.  Some 
of  them  carry  those  ideas  into  their  appearance  and  dress. 
'Tis  said  that  some  of  them  roll  up  their  trousers  in  New  York 
when  they  hear  it  is  raining  in  "  Lunnon." 

We  all  know  that  one-half  of  what  is  known  as  the  "street" 
in  New  York  do  not  pretend  to  speculate  in  stock  from  an  in- 
vestigation of  value,  but  they  merely  ask:  "What  are  Gould, 
Vanderbilt,  Cammack,  &c.,  &c.,  going  to  do?" 

They  are  "tailers"  and  merely  follow  some  leader.  It  is  so 
with  our  bankers.  In  1870,  we  owed  such  an  enormous  sum  of 
money  to  Europe  that  we  were  under  obligations  to  their  finan- 
cial men.  The  banker  of  reputation  to-day  was  raised  in  the 
atmosphere  of  English  dictation  in  financial  matters,  and  has 
been  imbued  with  English  ideas  of  finance.  He  does  not  go 
back  and  study  the  history  of  finance  and  see  that  he  is  follow- 
ing the  worst  form  of  financiering  that  liad  been  established  in 
the  world,  and  fails  to  take  time  to  see  that  it  is  to  his  advant- 
age to  cut  loose  from  the  path  that  he  has  followed  for  years. 


DEMONETIZATION.  13 

He  fails  to  see  that  it  is  our  time  to  grasp  the  reins  of  com- 
merce and  assume  the  lead  iiistead '  of  following  after  our 
British  cousins. 

He  is  like  the  man  that  rides  his  mule  along  the  railroad 
track,  because  he  was  used  to  this  style  of  travel  before  the 
railroad  was  constructed.  He  don't  even  admit  that  the  rail- 
road is  the  best  to  ride  on.  He  is  what  is  kindly  called  "set  in 
his  ways."     He  is  a  "numbskull." 

Some  of  our  "able  financiers"  (?)  in  the  Senate  and  Cabinet 
who  have  to  go  to  Europe  to  be  instructed  in  finance,  may  re- 
ceive sudsia/iiia/  lessons,  and  undoubtedly  have  done  so  in  the 
past,  but  someway  their  ideas  do  not  help  the  laborer  or  citizen 
of  this  country,  as  their  whole  effort  appears  to  be  to  contract 
the  currency  in  this  country  and  benefit  the  money-lender  and 
foreign  capitalist. 

CONTRACTION  OF  CURRENCY  THE  NATURAL  RESULT  OF 
DEMONETIZATION. 

This  is  too  plain  a  business  proposition  to  be  discussed  at 
length.  It  is  the  side  presented  principally  by  the  politit  ian 
and  I  only  mention  it  to  connect  the  argument.  It  is  a  well  un- 
derstood law  of  finance  that  with  plenty  of  currency,  money  is 
cheap,  because  it  can  be  borrowed  at  a  low  rate  of  interest. 
This  naturally  induces  the  building  up  of  all  classes  of  im- 
[jrovements.  It  gives  employment  to  men  and  causes  prosper- 
ity for  the  public,  but  the  capitalist  does  not  receive  as  nnich 
money  in  the  transaction,  and  naturally  is  antagonistic  to  any 
kind  of  increase  of  the  currency.  England,  starting  her  fin.in- 
cial  bank  out  in  a  paper  boat  early  in  the  century,  oiitainiiig 
control  of  the  great  commerce  of  the  seas,  adopted  the  gold 
standard  and  insisted  on  payment  in  gold  and  levied  a  gold 
tribute  in  jjaymcnt  for  her  manufactures,  and  as  she  had 
driven  nearly  every  nation  from  the  carrying  trade,  charged 
exorbitant  ocean  rates  of  freight  and  collected  it  in  gold.  It 
was  a  civili/ed  form  of  highway  rf)l>bcry,  and  suc(  ceded. 

Their  moneyed  men  saw  that,  if  they  <-ould  destroy  silver  as 
money,  they  could  absolutely  control  tlie  finances  of  the 
wf)rl(l.  They  passed  laws  obliging  the  iJank  of  l".ngland  to 
hoard  up  the  gold  by  purchasing  all  presented,  and  commenced 
an  intelligent  and  aggressive  cam|>aign  against  the  use  of  si! 
ver  as  money.    At  that  time,  about  one-half  of  the   money  in 


14  DEMONETIZATION. 


the  world  was  silver  money,  and  the  Englishmen  saw  that,  if 
they  could  get  silver  demonetized,  thus  reducing  the  volume  of 
money   one-half,  they  could  exact  a   higher  rate  of  interest. 

The  Bank  of  England  then  commenced  to  dictate  the  rate 
of  interest,  and  was  successful  for  years.  The  action  was 
disastrous  to  their  oVn  country,  and  has  ruined  her  farmer  and 
is  ruining  her  mining  industry,  and  will  surely  destroy  all  pros- 
perity of  the  great  middle  classes  in  England  before  the 
century  closes.  This  is  no  hard  feature  of  finance  to  figure 
out,  because,  if  silver  is  demonetized,  there  is  not  gold  enough 
to  "go  around"  and  furnish  a  base  of  credit.  The  production 
of  gold  does  not  increase  as  rapidly  as  the  trade  of  the  world. 

The  result  is,  that  trade  must  shrink,  collapse  or  in  some 
way  come  down  to  the  decreased  amount  of  currency.  It  will 
hit  the  Englishman  the  hardest,  and  has  commenced  already. 

There  is  no  surer  sign  of  distress  in  national  finances  than 
England  has  shown  the  past  year.  Great  failures,  wide-spread 
distress  and  strikes  of  laborers  are  the  rule  in  the  mono-metal 
countries  to-day.  Happiness  of  the  laboring  and  middle  classes 
in  none. 

The  capitalist  that  thinks  by  such  contraction  of  the 
country's  currency  he  is  benefiting  himself,  will  find  that 
while  he  may  bleed  a  little  more  interest  from  his  creditors  for 
the  present,  he  is  building  a  credit  on  so  small  a  base  that  a 
puff  of  war  or  disaster  may  start  a  tumble  that  will  take  not  only 
his  creditors,  but  himself  along  with  it  when  it  topples  over. 

There  is  hardly  any  man  but  recognizes  "the  fact  that  gold 
is  not  enough  to  base  a  currency  upon  and  insure  prosperity, 
and  it  is  only  the  money-lender  that  receives  any  temporary 
benefit  from  a  contraction  of  the  currency.  It  is  only  a  tem- 
porary benefit  to  him,  because  our  whole  social  structure  in* 
this  United  States  is  banded  together,  and  if  the  producer  is 
unsuccessful,  the  capitalist  will  ultimately  fail. 

Then,  why  drift  toward  a  gold  standard  at  all?  I  hope  to 
show  that  it  is  perfectly  safe  to  monetize  silver  fully  and  defy 
anyone  to  disprove  the  facts  presented. 

The  action  of  England  in  contracting  to  a  gold  basis  has 
had  the  effect  of  nearly  doubling  the  value  of  their  gold  as 
money,  so  that  a  gold  pound  can  purchase  nearly  twice  as 
much  of  every  known  commodity  to-day  as  it  could  forty  years 


DEMONETIZATION. 


ago.  Gold  mono-metalism  has  thus  far  helped  the  rich  in 
England,  but  has  ground  down  the  poor  in  every  instance. 

The  theory  of  mono-metalism  means,  to  make  the  rich 
man's  gold  more  valuable,  and  everything  else,  including  sil- 
ver, of  less  value. 

It  certainly  is  not  what  America  wants.  Let  us  take  care  ot 
the  poor  man;  the  rich  one  can  take  care  of  himself. 

We  do  not  want  any  contraction  of  currency  in  the  United 
States, 


CIIAl^TF.R    III. 


MISTAKES. 


The  first  great  mistake  that  \vc  made  in  financial  legislation, 
was  to  demonetize  silver  in  1873.  The  Senate  and  House  of 
Representatives,  we  are  told,  were  fooled  into  this  mistake,  and 
the  article  I  have  copied  shows  that  it  was  undoubtedly  paid 
for  by  Mr.  Seyd.  It  was  a  business  transaction  by  Englishmen 
that  they  were  willing  to  pay  for  liberally.  They  already  saw 
that  this  country  was  the  future  queen  of  finance. 

They  had  connived  at  our  maritine  destruction.  They  had 
witnessed  our  settlement  of  internal  difficulties,  and  knew  it 
meant  success.  They  heard  of  our  great  Comstock  lode,  in 
which  some  fool  expert  had  reported  there  were  $175,000,000 
worth  of  silver  in  sight.  Knowing  that  each  nation  that  had 
controlled  the  balance  of  trade,  since  time  immemorial,  had 
assumed  to  dictate  the  value  of  the  precious  metals,  and  seeing 
our  power,  now  that  we  are  united  again,  they  used  this  means 
to  keep  our  financial  prestige  down.  It  was  wise  in  them,  but 
foolish  for  us.     It  was  a  great  mistake. 

In  1878,  we  recognized  that  it  was  a  mistake,  and  passed  a 
bill  authorizing  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  purchase 
bullion  and  coin  §2,000,000  per  montli.  It  was  done  because  we 
felt  the  need  of  some  source  of  increase  of  the  currency  to 
meet  the  growing  wants  of  trade.  And  as  the  Comstock  lode 
did  not  turn  out  pure  silver,  the  panic  that  English  influence 
had  thrown  our  financial  men  into,  had  eased  up  to  a  great  ex- 
tent. 

'This  move  was  opposed  by  the  money-lenders,  as  they  rec- 
ognized that  it  was  an  increase  of  the  currency  that  they  would 
have  to  contend  against  in  their  attempted  control  of  finance. 

However,  this  law  was  nearly  as  great  a  mistake  as  that  of 
1873,  because  it  went  back  to  the  feudal  times  prior  to   1666, 


MISTAKES.  17 


when  rulers  asserted  the  power  to  buy  bullion  and  declare 
value  of  coin,  and  make  a  profit  thereon. 

It  clearly  was  a  violation  of  the  intent  of  our  Constitution, 
and  inaugurated  a  system  that  is  vicious  and  is  working  out  its 
dire  results  to-day.  It  was  a  sort  of  compromise  between  the 
men  who  wanted  to  destroy  silver  as  money  and  the  business 
men,  who  saw  that  the  single  standard  would  end  in  disaster  to 
our  nation. 

It  was  a  subterfuge  that  quieted  the  people,  who  could  see 
that  a  great  mistake  had  been  made  in  demonetizing  silver,  and 
who  would  not  allow  the  contraction  of  the  currency  naturally 
going  on  from  the  payment  of  the  government  obligations  to 
continue  without  some  attempt  at  relief.  While  at  the  same 
time,  it  quieted  the  gold  men,  because  they  had  succeeded  in 
preventing  the  acknowledgment  of  silver  as  money  metal.  As 
the  gold  mono-metalist  has,  ever  since  that  law,  controlled  the 
the  Secretaries  of  the  Treasury,  and  every  move  made  in  the 
wav  of  silver  purchases,  has  been  under  their  dictation;  the 
whole  effort  of  the  Government  under  that  law  was  to  depress 
the  price  of  silver,  and  buy  it  as  low  as  possible,  coin  it  into 
money,  and  make  as  much  as  the  Government  coulil  off  the 
transaction. 

Thus  going  right  back  in  the  face  of  the  intent  of  the  Con- 
stitution of  our  own  country  and  adopting  the  position  taken 
by  the  kings  and  emperors  prior  to  1666. 

If  the  farmer  rould  only  take  his  wheat  to  one  mill,  and  one 
miller  would  only  buy  wheal,  and  sell  flour,  charging  what  he 
might  for  the  flour,  and  i)aying  what  he  pleased  for  wheat,  he 
would  be  in  the  same  position  as  the  miner,  under  tiiat  law. 

The  law  of  1890  is  more  vicious  still  than  that  of  1878. 

In  this,  the  Government  buys  4,500,Of)0  ounces  per  moi.th. 
issuing  Treasury  notes  for  the  market  value  thereof  on  the 
d;iy  of  purchase. 

Thisadi)|)t-  the  Iuigli>li  idea  of  in^lru(  ting  the  |)un  ji.isc  of 
bullion;  only  it  did  not  set  the  price  of  bullion  by  l.iw,  as  Kng- 
land  had  done.  Had  an  idea  as  the  English  one  was,  this  is  so 
far  worse,  that  while  the  English  system  was  bad.  this  move 
w.-js  positively  asinine. 

Instead  of  stating  that  the  Treasury  would  buy  a  certain 
amount,  at  a  fixed  price,  they  left  it  to  the  various  Secrctaric* 


l8  MISTAKES. 


of  tlie  Treasury  to  speculate  with,  and  each  succeeding  Secre- 
tary has  tried  to  see  how  cheap  he  could  buy  the  silver;  and 
thus  the  whole  force  of  the  Government  is  used  to  depress  its 
value.     The  result  is  shown  by  the  price  of  silver. 

Its  bullion  value,  taken  at  a  gold  basis,  is  lower  now  than 
ever  before,  and,  with  this  depression,  it  is  carrying  everything 
down  with  it. 

It  is  shutting  down  hundreds  of  mines,  and  destroying  great 
industries  that  should  be  fostered.  It  is  only  doing  one  good,  and 
that  is,  the  Treasury  is  becoming  loaded  up  with  silver  to  such 
an  extent  that,  as  a  plain  business  proposition,  the  people  will 
take  hold  of  the  matter  and  demand  that  the  value  shall  be  de- 
clared by  law,  and  maintamcd  by  the  Treasury  officials,  and 
this  destruction  of  our  great  mining  interests  be  stopped  by 
the  authorities  in  Washington;  that  they  pay  attention  to  Amer- 
ica's interest  instead  of  England's,  and  that  they  look  to  the 
good  of  the  people  and  not  to  that  of  the  money-lender. 

Last  year,  the  Treasury  purchased  54,393,912  ounces  of  fine 
silver,  paying  therefor,  $53,796,833;  an  average  of  98)5  cents 
per  ounce;  and  to-day,  if  it  were  to  be  called  for  by  the 
holders  of  silver  certificates, , there  would  be  a  loss  to  the 
Government  of  about  12  cents  per  ounce.  The  arrangements 
of  the  Treasury  for  the  purchase  of  this  silver  tend  to  favor 
the  speculator  instead  of  the  owner  of  bullion.  A  seller  has 
ten  days  to  deliver,  and  the  result  is,  that  the  speculator 
"shaves"  the  offer  of  the  bullion  owner.  Then  the  Govern- 
ment stops  buying,  and  the  speculator,  by  such  operations 
as  brokers  are  familiar  with,  depresses  the  prices  and  makes  a 
"scalp"  on  his  trade  with  the  Government.  The  present  Con- 
gress is  rattling  around  trying  to  prevent  the  sale  of  wheat 
short,  while  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  is  conniving  with 
and  aiding  short  sellers  of  silver.  If  he  would  only  go  a  little 
further  and  let  the  speculators,  who  are  the  holders  of  silver 
certificates,  go  to  the  Treasury  and  demand  the  bullion  on  their 
certificates,  and  thus  fill  their  contract  with  the  Treasury  with- 
out removing  the  bars  from  vaults,  he  would  then  completely 
destroy  the  purposes  of  the  law.  It  is  a  law  to  induce  bear 
speculation  in  silver,  and  that  is  all. 

If  the  present  law  should  continue  for  ten  years  and  be 
lived  up  to,  the  Government  would  own  about  600,000,000 
ounces  of  silver  and  ncarlv  as  much  more  silver  in  coin;  and 


MISTAKES.  19 


then  everybody  would  have  a  personal  interest  in  silver,  as  a 
speculation,  and  this  is  the  only  good  of  the  present  law.  It  is 
not  finance,  or  sense,  but  a  miserable  make-shift,  that  does  not 
do  justice  to  the  greatest  and  richest  nation  in  the  world. 

It  shows  that  our  financial  men  have  not  the  "nerve"  of  the 
Englishman,  nor  the  necessary  wit,  to  see  the  ultimate  result, 
or  they  would  have  set  a  price  that  the  Secretary  should  pay 
for  this  certain  amount,  and  it  would  have  established  a  value, 
because  then  it  would  not  have  been  the  foot-ball  of  specula- 
tion and  destruction  of  confidence  in  the  metal  s  worth,  and  the 
whole  effort  of  speculation  would  have  been  to  maintain  its 
value  instead  of  depressing  it. 

It  should  oblige  the  party  selling  to  deliver  before  3 
o'clock,  the  same  as  stocks  or  cash  grain  is  delivered.  In  this 
way,  the  owner  of  the  bullion  would  sell  the  stuff,  instead  of 
the  scalper,  who  tries  continually  to  undersell  and  then  bear 
the  market,  to  be  able  to  fill  his  contracts  at  a  profit  before  de- 
livery. 

It  is  well  that  Senator  Teller  has  demanded  the  names  from 
whom  the  bullion  has  been  purchased  by  llie  Treasury  officials, 
because  it  will  show  that  I  have  "called  the  turn"  on  tlic  way 
the  trading  has  been  done. 

An  offer  of  silver  from  a  refinery  or  producer  should  be 
considered  closed  on  day  of  transaction,  and  delivery  to  Mint 
directed  from  the  Treasury  Department,  and  the  system  of 
only  accepting  those  offers  that  are  lower  than  tlie  market 
price  in  New  York  of  certificates  stopped,  as  speculators  regu- 
late the  New  York  price  of  certificates,  and  ma  dealers  at  all. 

'.         ALLOWING  WALL  STREKT  AND  ENGLAND  TO  DICTATK. 

This  whole  attack  on  silver  as  money  originated  in  l".ng- 
land,  and  has  been  perpetuated  by  Wail  Street  and  our  Na- 
tional P.anks  for  selfish  motives.  Twenty  years  ago  it  was 
possibly  proper  for  us  to  allow  English  dictation,  to  a  certain 
extent.  We  were  heavy  debtors  to  that  nation,  and  a  nation, 
like  a  man.  is  cowardly  when  under  great  iinaiK  iai  oblig.ition. 
f)ur  bankers  in  New  Yf)rk  could  not  turn  .iround  for  yt-ars 
without  first  finding  out  if  it  was  agreeable  to  our  English 
cousins,  and  they,  in  turn,  (li<  tatifl  to  our  country  banks  just 
as  arrogantly  as  they  were  di<  tated  to  fmni  abrf)ad. 

In  those  times,  thi--  dir  t.iiinii  wa-  .dlowed.  because  of  a  feel- 


MISTAKES. 


ing  that  it  was  not  policy  to  aiitaL,'-onizc  a  powerful  creditor. 
The  Englishmen,  in  this  period  of  dictation,  thoroughly 
schooled  a  great  nunil^cr  of  our  financiers  into  the  idea  that  if 
the  silver  was  demonetized,  and  gold  alone  became  the  base  of 
our  currency,  that  the  bankers  of  Wall  Street  could  control  the 
rates  of  interest,  the  same  as  the  Bank  of  England  had  done. 
The  National  Bankers  throughout  the  country  imbibed  the 
same  idea  from  the  New  Yorkers. 
^  It  is  correct,  too,  but  against  "the  interest  of  the  people. 
With  a  gold  basis  alone,  the  National  Banks  and  the  Wall 
Street  sharks,  could  absolutely  control  the  rates  of  interest,  and 
make  times  prosperous  or  disastrous,  as  they  saw  fit,  because 
the  volume  of  currency  would  be  so  contracted  that  //  could  be 
controlled,  just  as  the  Englishmen  claim  the  Bank  of  England 
can  do  in  their  country.  It  would  make  money  more  valuable, 
but  the  laboring  man  could  readily  see  that  his  labor  would 
command  less  money;  the  farmer  could  see  that  he  would  have 
to  sell  more  wheat  to  get  the  same  amount  of  currency,  and, 
in  fact,  just  as  in  England  to-day,  the  money-lender  would  be 
benefited,  but  every  other  industry  or  calling  but  that  of  money 
lending  would  be  injured. 

This  silver  issue  is  a  straight  one  between  the  money- 
lenders and  the  producers  and  laborers  of  the  country.  It  is 
the  attempt  to  graft  onto  our  finances  the  English  idea  of 
helping  the  rich  and  depressing  the  poor.  In  the  past  year  the 
moneyed  institutions  have  purchased,  bull-dozed  and  intimi- 
dated the  press  of  the  country  into  misrepresenting  the  true 
facts  of  the  silver  question. 

While  Mr.  Seyd  succeeded  in  bribing  a  Senator  and  a  couple 
of  Congressmen  in  1873,  and  having  them  sacrifice  their 
country's  interest,  these  later  followers  of  England's  dictation 
have  bribed  those  moulders  of  public  opinion,  the  daily  papers, 
or  threatened  foreclosure  or  withdrawal  of  patronage  in  case 
they  antagonized  their  interests.  They  have  deceived  the  peo- 
ple, and  they  hope  to  rob  them  by  such  deceit.     It  is  all  wrong. 

SUPPOSED  GREATNESS  OF  SOME  FINANCIERS. 

A  great  many  people  assume  that  Senator  Sherman  is  an 
oracle  on  finance  because  he  happened  to  be  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  at  the  time  of  the  resumption  of  specie  payments. 
This  fact  has  given  him  great  reputation,  but  the  truth  of  the 


MISTAKES.  21 


matter  is,  that  if  our  balance  of  trade  had  not  turned  in  our 
favor  in  1874,  we  could  not  have  resumed  specie  payments  and 
continued  it  a  day.  It  is  not  in  the  power  of  man  to  resist  the 
flov;  nf  money  from  a  nation  tv  j*:  buys  more  than  it  sells;  and 
it  is  but  a  logical  resui:  mat  money  comes  to  a  country  that 
sells  more  than  it  buys.  Trade  turned  in  our  way  in  1874,  and 
has  continued  so,  to  a  great  extent,  ever  since. 

With  money  flowing  into  our  country  ever  since  that  year, 
we,  of  course,  could  resume  specie  payment  and  maintain  it, 
and  it  was  no  great  thing  for  Senator  Sherman  to  do,  as  it  was 
nothing  but  the  logical  result  of  prosperity. 

To  show  that  his  ideas  arc  not  sound,  although  he  claims 
credit  on  making  some  S8oo,ooo,ooo  of  paper  as  good  as  gold  by 
this  operation,  he  says  that  for  this  Government  to  stamp  silver 
to  the  amount  of  only  $500,000,000  it  canrfot  maintain  the  value, 
and  that  the  gold  would  leave  the  country  if  silver  was  coined 
to  any  great  extent. 

Can  it  be  possible  that  he  is  sincere  in  this  position?  Is 
worthless  paper,  when  printed  upon,  worth  more  tlian  one  of 
the  coins  of  the  precicnis  metal?  Is  it  possible  that  he  l)elicvcs 
that  a  destructible  piece  of  paper  should  sui)plant  a  coin  that 
is  indestructible,  and  stampctl  by  the  Government,  and  its 
value  declared  by  law? 

Will  the  paper  circulate  and  allow  the  retention  of  the  gold 
in  this  country,  and  if  silver  be  used,  the  gold  leave?  Mr. 
Sherman,  and  every  other  man  of  sense,  knows  that  as  long  as 
the  balance  of  trade  comes  "our  way"  no  kind  of  money  will 
leave  this  country. 

Me  knows  that  this  is  what  enabled  liim  to  resume  specie 
|)ayments  when  he  did.  There  was  no  great  financial  a!)ililv 
displayed  in  that  move;  it  was  the  natural  (  oiirsc  of  events. 
He  has  decried  the  coinage  of  silver  in  any  form,  and  is  an  un- 
tiring worker  against  that  metal.  In  l87«,  it  was  Ihe  general 
cry  of  our  f)nan<  iers  (so-called)  that  gold  would  leave  the 
country  if  we  coined  silver.  However,  from  1878  until  November 
1st.  1891,  we  coined  Sj09.475./'8  in  silver  dollars,  .ind  during 
that  same  time,  accumulated  over  ^500.000.000  in  gold.  ( >ur 
financiers  (?)  were  wrong  in  their  predictions.  They  are  wrong 
in  their  i)redictions  in  regard  to  silver  coinage.  Until  we  lose 
the  balance  of  trade  we  will  continue  to  accumulate  gold,  no 


22  MISTAKES. 


matter  whether  we  coin  silver  or  print  promises  to  pay  on  pa- 
per and  call  it  money. 

We  are  selling  more  than  we  buy,  and  can  do  what  we 
please  in  this  matter.  The  wiseacres  of  finance  cry  "thief" 
to  keep  the  attention  of  the  people  from  the  fact  that  they 
want  to  restrict  the  currency  in  order  to  n  b  them.  They  know 
that  their  assertion,  that  free  silver  coinag  ■;  would  mean  silver 
monometalism,  is  false,  but  the  money-lenvl^r  is  correctly  des- 
cribed by  Shakespeare.  He  wants  his  pound  of  flesh,  though 
it  destroys  the  prosperity  and  life  of  his  country. 

The  flow  of  precious  metal  from  our  mines  is  the  blood  of 
our  financial  system.  It  furnishes  that  pulsing  life  that  keeps 
us  prosperous,  increasing  with  our  growth,  and  strengthens 
every  part  of  our  commerce.  Let  us  say  to  these  money- 
lenders and  Shylocks,  "Take  then  thy  bond,  take  thou  thy  pound 
of  flesh;  but,  in  the  cutting  it,  if  thou  dost  shed  one  drop  of 
Christain  blood,  thy  lands  and  goods  are  by  the  laws  confiscate 
unto  the  State." 


CHAPTER    IV. 

44 


GRESHAM'S  LAW." 


Easily  explained,  "Grcsham's  Law"  is  a  theory  advanced 
that,  in  all  countries  where  various  kinds  of  money  are  used,  tlic 
one  of  the  most  commercial  value  is  driven  out,  by  the  poorer 
forms  of  money.  It  is  a  theory  that  assumes  two  things. 
V'nst:  that  precious  metals  have  a  value  other  than  by  law. 
Second:  that  people  are  prejudiced  in  favor  of  one  money  as 
against  another  when  both  are  guaranteed  by  the  same  nation 
alike. 

Mr.  Gresham  was  an  Englishman  in  free  trade  England 
over  three  hundred  years  ago.  He  made  his  observations  from 
an  English  standpoint  of  study,  and  his  wliole  deduction  is  cor- 
rect except  in  one  thing. 

He  found  that  full  weight  coins  woultl  \)v  exported  instead 
of  light  weight  ones,  which,  when  you  consider  lli.it  ihf  full 
weight  coins  were  worth  more  for  bullion  than  the  others,  was 
really  no  great  discovery.  His  latter  day  admirers  have  ex- 
tended his  theory  to  the  belief  that  with  gold  and  silver  jointly 
used  as  currency,  the  gold  would  be  sent  out,  leaving  the  silver. 
While  "Grcsham's  Law  "  was  a  fart  in  his  day,  the  deduc  lions 
that  his  latter-day  cliami>ions  make,  are  all  wrong  untKr  the 
<()iulitions  as  they  exist  to-day.  An  Englishman  might  truly 
note  that  countries  which  owed  England  money  on  balances, 
having  gold  and  silver,  would  lose  the  gold  first. 

The  men  who  (|uole  the  "Gresham  Law"  fail  to  state  how  il 
would  act  in  countries  which  do  not  owe  a  balance  of  trade. 

It  is  very  proper,  and  undoubtedly  so,  that  if  a  n.ition  or  set 
of  men  h.id  to  remit  coin  of  any  kind  to  England,  that  ihey  would 
remit  gold,  because  they  know  they  would  get  £}  17s.  (/I.  pt-r 
ounce  for  it,  while  if  they  remit  silver,  the  brokers  would  "s(  alp" 
It    as  much  as  possible.     With  a  balance   of  trade  against  a 


24  "GRESHAM'S    LAW." 

country,  "Gresham's  Law"  is  as  sure  as  fate,  but  with  a  balance 
of  trade  in  favor  of  a  country  it  is  all  "bosh." 

France  is  a  notable  example  of  its  fallacy,  and  this  country, 
since  the  balance  of  trade  is  coming  our  way,  is  another. 

It  is  a  theory  that  falls  flat  when  confronted  with  facts. 
For  the  past  few  years  England  is  wavering  along  that  point 
that  promises  a  complete  loss  of  the  balance  of  trade. 
Germany  and  France  have  built  up  a  merchant  navy  that  is 
encroaching  on  England's  commerce  in  every  direction. 
England  has  to  strain  every  nerve  to  meet  the  drafts  of  this 
country  on  her  treasure  vaults.  If  it  had  not  been  a  fact  that 
the  United  States  had  been  enormously  in  debt  to  that  country, 
we  would  have  impoverished  that  nation.  She  has  not  gold 
enough  in  her  banks,  nor  have  her  people  enough  precious 
metal  to  pay  us  one  year's  balance  of  trade. 

"Gresham's  Law"  is  good  as  against  a  nation  that  owes  money 
but  it  is  a  myth  in  a  country  that  is  accumulating  money. 

It  is  this  feature  of  the  silver  question  that  I  want  to  give  in 
detail.  I  have  j)repared  tables  to  prove  that  gold  will  not 
leave  this  country  with  free  coinage  of  silver,  and  want  every 
man  to  carefully  consider  the  statements  made.  After  all,  the 
only  use  of  money  is  to  pay  debts,  and  in  making  coin  the 
Government  only  stamps  an  indestructible  declaration  of  value, 
that  shall  be  credited  a  debtor. 

A  nation  that  is  a  spendthrift  is  subject  to  "Gresham's  Law," 
but  the  United  States  or  France  is  as  free  from  its  effects  as 
though  it  never  was  heard  of. 

The  people  of  a  country  do  not  look  to  the  bullion  value  of 
a  coin,  they  merely  look  to  see  that  it  is  stamped  properly  by 
the  Government,  and  not  defaced  or  is  not  counterfeit. 

GOLD    DOES    NOT    LKAVK    THE   UNITED   STATES. 

On  November  ist,  i8qi,  the  Director  of  the  Mint  estimated 
that  there  was  a  stock  of  $671,139,531  worth  of  gold  and  $539,- 
241,624  in  silver  money  in  the  United  States,  and  of  this  coin- 
age, $409,475,368  were  silver  dollars  coined  since  1878.  His 
figures  on  the  amount  of  gold  in  the  country  are  probably  nearly 
correct.  I  \\  ill  combine  his  report  with  Treasury  statements 
and  get  at  a  close  approximate. 

The  figures  of  the  Director  of  the  Mint  showing  the  pro- 


GRESHAM'S    LAW." 


duction  of  the   mines  of  the  United   States    are  as   follows, 
since  1878: 

GOLD  AND  SILVER  PRODUCED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


Years. 

GOLD. 

Troy  Ounces. 

Gold. 

TroTounces.      Silver  at.  29.29 

1878 

1879 

18.80 

1881 

1882 

1883 

18-S4 

188-- 

1886 

1887 

1888 

1889 

1890 

1891 

2.476.800 
1.881,787 
1,741.-00 
1,678,612 
1.572.187 
1,451,250 
1,489.9^0 

i.5,V<.325 
1,6X6,502 

1,603,649 
1,604,478 

1.594.775 
1.588.S77 
1,604,840 

$    51,200,000 
38,900,900 
36,000,000 
34,700,000 
32,500,000 
30,600.000  * 
30.800,000 
31,800,000 
34,869,000 
33,136,000 
33,167.500 
32.967,000 
32, 84;, 000 
33,175.000 

34,960,000 
31,550,000 
30,320,000 
33,260,000 
36,200,000 
35,730.000 
37,800.000 
39.910,000 

39.6S5.513 
41, 721. 192 
45.792.682 
50,094,571 
54.516,300 
58,330,000 

$     45.200,000 

40,800,000 
39,200,000 
43,000,000 
40,800,000 
46,200,000 
48,800,000 
51,600,000 
5i,32i,;oo 
53.941,800 
^9,206,700 
64,76.8,730 
70,48^,714 
75.210,565 

Total... 

$486,060,400 

569,570,650 

J736.541.ccq 

The  Treasury  reports  show  our  imports  and  exports  of  gold 
and  silver  during  the  period  from  June  i si,  1877,  to  February 
1st,  1892,  to  be  as  follows  : 


IMPORTS  AND  EXPORTS  OF  GOLD. 


IMPORTS  AND  EXPORTS  OK  SILVER. 


Vcar. 


Exports. 


Imports. 


Vcar. 


Exports. 


Imports. 


T^'-8. 


I8.M 

l'<82 

lH><; 

I'^M 

iSH; 

I'^^r, 

"SS7 

JS^S 

iKV; 

|8<,0 

l8t)i 

To  Feb  1,92 


$  9.204,455 

4.:87,6l4 

3.6.W,024 

2.565,132 

32, 187.880 

II, /wo,  8X8 

41.081,0:7 

8.477..S2 

42.9^2. 191 

9.7"  1. 187 
I  s.  376, 234 

59,9:2.28; 

17.274. .»9l 
86.^)2.6:4 

8.i«72.643 


Ji3,33o.2i5 

^,624,948 

80.758,31/1 

100,031,249 
34.377.054 
17.7.^4.149 
22.831,317 
2hM)\.(*ifi 

20.743.349 
42.910.631 

43.9,U.3"7 
lo.28:,8:8 

I2,943,.342 
iS,2^2,:'i7 
42,215,860 


1  IR78 

»24.535.670 

!    1879 

20.401^827 

1    18H0 

|.<.;03.H94 

1881 

16.841,71; 

18H2 

16.829,  ii9<> 

1883 

20,219,44- 

1.884 

26,0:1.426 

i.SS; 

33. 7 13.633 

iSSf) 

29.5 11.219 
26,  »)<).;  04 

1  N^r 

!•-'.. 

1  •  "' )  

28.037.949 

Tfi.'-f<n.?\^ 

1 8«>c 

•  • 

|H<)I 

2. 

1     To  Feb  1,92 

2'j.S7' 

916,191,099 
14,671,052 
12,275,914 
io,;44,2.^ 
8,69:, 3.V> 
10,755.242 
14.594.945 

l6,:!;o,627 
l7.8--o..?o7 
I7,2<)0,I9I 

i;,4o3,(>i)9 

■"/i:\2i5 


18 


'84 

-80 


Total..., 


>357. 236.627  f  492.644.928 


Total....  #.?7o.Sl6,9i7    |»220,I95,«3I 


These  figures  show  that  other  countries  sent  us  $135,408,301 


26  "GRESHAM'S    LAW." 


more  gold  than  we  sent  them,  and  this,  added  to  our  gold  pro- 
duction, makes  an  increase  of  our  stock  of  gold  since  1878, 
when  we  commenced  to  coin  silver,  of  about  $621,468,701.  It  is 
supposed  that  about  815,000,000  to  $18,000,000  worth  of  gold  is 
used  in  the  arts  each  year,  but  the  most  of  that  is  not  lost  to  use, 
if  a  necessity  arises. 

Does  this  look  as  though  silver  coinage  had  driven  out 
gold? 

On  the  contrary,  sec  tlie  movement  of  silver.  We  produced 
in  that  time  $736,541,009  worth  of  silver. 

We  coined  $539,241,624  and  we  sold  to  other  countries  $150,- 
321,086  worth  more  than  we  imported,  and  we  used  in  the  arts 
from  $7,000,000  to  $9,000,000  worth  a  year. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  we  ship  away  silver,  and  that  gold 
comes  to  us,  and  under  the  conditions  of  our  trade  with  other 
countries  this  must  be  so,  and  will  continue. 

If  we  had  been  having  free  coinage  of  silver  since  1878  we 
would  have  had  about  $200,000,000  more  currency  in  the 
couiitrv,  based  on  silver.  Our  $150,000,000  worth  of  silver 
would  not  have  been  sold  to  England  at  a  price  that  was  used 
to  depress  every  commodity  raised  by  the  producers  of  the 
United  States,  as  I  will  show  later. 

It  positively  could  have  done  no  harm  to  this  country,  but  it 
would  have  done  incalculable  good.  It  is  the  first  instance  in 
history,  that  a  powerful  nation  obtaining  control  of  the  money 
metals  failed  to  dictate  their  value  to  the  world. 

I  propose  to  show  by  figures  furnished  by  the  Treasury  De- 
partment itself,  that  free  coinage  of  silver  would  only  increase 
the  volume  of  currency  in  this  country  without  risking  one 
single  interest  other  than  that  of  the  money  lender. 

WHY    GOLD    DOES   NOT    GO   OUT. 

The  plain  reason  why  gold  does  not  leave  this  country,  is 
the  fact  that  the  United  States  is  making  money  and  that  other 
nations  are  paying  us  instead  of  our  paying  them  balances. 


GRESHAM'S    LAW." 


I  again  take  from  the  reports  of  the  Treasury  Department 
a  statement  of  the 

IMPORTS   AND   EXPORTS   OF    MERCHANDISE. 


v^l^fL          Total  Ex- 
fune"^.             P-'- 

T„, ,,^               Excess  of               Excess  of 

Imports.              Exports.                Imports. 

1876 

1877 

1S78 

1S79 

iHSo 

$    c40.3S4.671 

602.47C,220 

694.»6:.766 
710.439.441 
83c.638.6;8 
902,377.346 
7Co.:42.257 
823,839.402 
740.  c  1 3.609 
742,189.755 
679,524.830 
716.183.211 
695,954.507 
742,401,373 
8:7,^28.684 
884.480,810 
651,263.603 

$  460,741,190    1  $     79,643,481 
451,323,126    !      151,152,094 
437.051.532    ,      2:7.814.234 

44:. 777.77^             264,661,660 
667,9:4.746     :        167,683,912 
642.664,628            2:9.7'2.7i'< 
724,639,  :74     '          25,902.6^^ 
723,180.914              100,658,488 
66/607.60^              T-jSiC-oifi 

i8Hi 

j88'> 

1M1 

1R84. 

188; 

1886 

18S7 

188H 

577.527.32<:) 
63:,436,i36 
692.319.708 
723,957.114 
74:, m, 6:2 
789.310,40c) 
84^,916,196 
458,392.125 

164,662.426 
44.088,694 
23,863,443 



$        28,002,607 

1S89 

|H<.)0 

i8c)i 

Feb  1,1892. 

2,7'?o,277 

68,1;  18,275 
39,564.614 
192,871.478 

Total,.. 

$12,570,903,145 

$10,688,021,907 

This  statement  shows  that  %ve  have  sold  to  other  ((iimlries 
since  1876,  §1,882,881,238  more  merchandise  than  vvc  have  pur- 
chased from  them.  Add  to  this  the  silver  purchased  from  us, 
Ji  50,321,086,  and  we  have  had  balances  aj^ainst  other  countries- 
amountinj,'  to  the  enormous  aggregate  of  §2,033,202,324  to  l)e 
paid  us.     Now,  how  was  this  vast  amount  paid? 

The  statistics  show  that  the  foreigners  sent  us  §135,408,301 
worth  of  gold,  more  tli.in  we  sent  to  them.  The  balance  of 
this  vast  sum  was  paid  us  in  the  securities  taken  of  us  when  we 
were  "hard  up"-  l)efore,  and  about  the  time  of  the  war.  At 
one  time  it  was  supposed  by  conservative  figures  that  we  owed 
f2,50f>,ooo,ooo  tf)  foreigners,  in  the  form  of  (iovernment  bonds, 
railrf)ad  bf)nds  and  stocks,  etc. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  the  past  few  months  gives  a  larger 
balance  in  our  favor  than  any  tune  since  18S1,  but  the  course 
of  trade  is  su(  h,  that  from  February  to  Jtine.  we  can  not  expect 
much  more  than  even  balance  with  other  cf)untries.  Tlu- 
spring  months  usually  show  a  bal.mce  of  trade  ag.iinst  the 
United  States,     Now  there  is  no  abstract  sriciK  <•  in  fin.iiu  «•. 


28  "GRESHAM'S    LAW." 


The  use  of  gold  and  silver  is  to  pay  debts.  If  we  don't 
owe  people,  we  keep  our  gold  and  silver,  and  every  form  of 
money.  If  we  do  owe  other  countries  we  pay  out  money  to 
them,  and  if  they  were  gold  mono-metalists  they  would  demand 
gold,  most  likely,  in  payment  for  their  goods.  In  the  tables 
that  1  present  further  on,  it  will  be  shown  that  we  are  fortunate 
even  in  this,  from  the  fact  that  the  countries  we  owe  money  to 
are  not  mono-mctalistic,  and  that  the  countries  that  owe  us  our 
greatest  balances,  are  those  countries  trying  to  hold  to  a  gold 
basis. 

The  published  table  of  exports  and  imports  shows  that  we 
have  paid  four-hfths  of  the  enormous  debt  we  owed  Europe  in 
the  "seventies."  If  we  continue  to  drain  other  countries  at  the 
rate  of  the  past  sixteen  years,  there  will  be  no  more  of  our  se- 
curities held  abroad  in  five  years'  time.  Then  those  countries 
will  have  to  borrow  money  of  us  at  a  higher  rate  of  interest 
than  we  pay  at  home,  or,  they  must  send  us  gold  to  pay  their 
debt.  England  has  not  gold  enough  in  the  whole  United  King- 
dom to  pay  us  one  year's  balance  of  trade,  after  we  have  ab- 
sorbed all  of  the  debt  we  owe  her. 

In  presenting  the  tables  in  this  chapter,  1  think  that  it  is 
made  plain  that  the  "Gresham  Law"  is  shown  to  be  a  theory  in 
our  case.  It  certainly  has  been  for  the  past  sixteen  years,  and 
it  ivill  contimie  to  be  so  as  long  as  we  have  a  balance  of  trade  in 
our  favor.  If  we  of  the  United  States  have  no  confidence  in 
ourselves,  it  is  perfectly  proper  for  us  to  follow  the  dictation  of 
England,  but  I  can  see,  that  unless  trade  changes  materially, 
London  must  step  back  the  same  as  Venice,  Genoa  and  Barce- 
lona have  done  in  the  past,  and  New  York  take  the  banner  of 
finance  and  make  her  terms  to  all  the  world. 

A.MERICA'S  time  to  IJICTATE  VALUES. 

In  my  historical  sketch,  I  tried  to  impress  the  fact  that  the 
nation  that  got  control  of  the  balance  of  trade,  and  the  bulk  of 
the  precious  metals,  always  has  assumed  to  put  a  value  on  the 
precious  metals  by  law.  The  only  exception  being  in  the  case 
of  England,  that  only  declared  the  value  of  gold  by  law.  It  is 
time  now  for  the  United  States  to  declare  the  value  of  the 
precious  metals,  only  she  should  follow  the  rule,  and  hot  the 
exception. 

I  again  have  recourse  to  the  report  of  the  Director  of  the 


"GRESHAM'S    LAW." 


Mint.  He  reports  the  following  production  of  precious  met.ils, 
and  I  use  his  own  figures  because  he  is  an  acknowledged  an- 
tagonist to  silver,  and  is  one  of  the  clique  which  docs  all  it  can 
to  hurt  the  use  of  silver  as  money. 

PRODUCT  OF  GOLD  AND  SILVER  IN  THE  WORLD  FOR 
1873  TO  1 891. 


Year. 


Silver. 


Fine,  Ozs.  Troy. 


1874. 
IS75- 
1876. 
1877. 

1S7S. 

;a 
iMi. 

i)iS2. 
18S4. 

1R86. 
18.S7. 
iWW. 
1S89. 
iSqo. 
I8qi. 


q6, 200,000 

co,75o,ooo 
97,300,000 
103,700,000 
144.000000 
iiCJi  000,000 
io(  000,000 
106. '00.000 
io3.ox),ooo 

102,00  3,000 

9:,4oc  000 
101.700.^00 
ioS,4oo,a-o 
io6,ooo,oo>i 
ios,77;,ooo 
110,244,000 
1 22,43s,  ;oo 
1 16,009,000 
124,229.000 


63,267,00c 
;:, 300,000 
62.262,000 
67,7:3,000 
O2.64S.000 
73.476,000 

74,2;0,000 

7^,791,000 
7^,S90,ooo 
86,470,000 
8().  177,000 
81,^97,000 
01,652,000 
93,276,000 
96,141.000 
I0S,KSS,000 
123,^00,000 

I2S,9I4,000 

140,683,000 


By  looking  at  my  tables  (jf  production,  it  will  be  seen  th.it 
the  United  States  produced  over  one-quarter  of  the  gokl  in  the 
world,  and  nearly  c/zc-Z/a^  of  the  silver  (the  exact  proportion 
of  silver  production  amounts  to  42  ]>er  cent.),  1)1. t  when  it  is 
taken  into  consideration  that  the  United  Stales  h.iiulles  over 
lialf  of  Mexico's  production,  either  in  smelting  ores  br  )ught  from 
Mexico,  or  importing  Mexican  bullion  (which  I  givo  fully  in 
"Trade  with  Mexico"  chapter),  it  is  a  fact  that  tlie  lUitcd 
States  to-day  controls  largely  more  than  one-half  the  silver 
production  of  the  world,  or  nearly  60  per  cent. 

The  Director  of  the  Mint  also  claims  lliat  we  have  )?7oo,ooo.- 
CX30  in  gold  in  this  country  in  circulation  or  in  the  Treasury,  and 
we  tf)-day  have  about  !>/'ioo,ooo,ooo  worth  of  ^iIver  in  coin  or  in 
Inillion  in  the  United  States.  :iiul  I  think  the  csliniale  is  alinui 
correct,  it  is  estimated  tliat  there  are  ?!, 700,000,000  gold  in 
the  world  and  the  above  slu)ws  tiiat  we  already  have  about  one- 


"GRESHAM'S    LAW," 


fifth  of  the  gold  of  the  world,  in  our  possession,  and  a  strong 
pull  on  the  remainder  if  our  balance  of  trade  keeps  as  it  has 
done  the  past  sixteen  years  — and  at  the  same  time  we  are  one 
of  the  largest  producers  of  gold. 

In  silver,  however,  we  arc  far  ahead  of  all  other  countries  in 
production.  I  have  not  investigated  the  matter  thoroughly, 
but  from  the  best  of  figures  to  be  obtained,  the  amount  of  silver 
used  as  money  is  supposed  to  be  about  equal  to  that  of  gold, 
or  say,  $3,700,000,000.  The  reason  of  my  uncertainty,  as  to 
amount  is  the  fact  that  Oceanica,  Asia  and  India  absorb  vast 
amounts,  and  the  records  of  coinage  are  incomplete.  However, 
it  can  safely  be  said  that  the  United  States  has  on  hand 
already  about  one-sixth  of  the  silver  of  the  world.  In  Europe.- 
where  the  coinage  is  known,  there  is  about  $1,150,000,000  silver 
money,  and  $700,000,000  of  that  is  in  France  alone,  leaving  the 
other  nations  but  a  small  part  each;  England,  $105,000,000; 
Austria,  8100,000,000;  Spain,  $90,000,000;  Belgium,  §50,000,000, 
&c.,  &c. 

The  assertion  that  there  is  a  stock  of  silver  "bullion"  in 
Europe  is  absolutely  false,  with  the  exception  of  a  small  lot 
held  possibly  by  Germany. 

Europe  buys  of  us  every  week,  and  as  I  will  show  further 
along,  they  use  it  as  a  weapon  to  destroy  the  prices  of  every- 
thing that  we  sell. 

The  most  careful  estimate  by  men  in  the  bullion  trade  is 
that  there  is  not  4,000,000  ounces  of  silver  in  the  form  of  bullion 
in  England  to-day,  and  she  has  all  of  the  stock  except  the  little 
lot  Germany  has  on  hand. 

As  the  United  States  owns  more  of  the  precious  metals  than 
any  nation  in  the  world,  and  is  producing  more  than  any  other 
nation,  and  as  her  trade  is  such  with  other  countries  that  no 
matter  what  move  we  would  make  in  finances,  gold  would  stay 
with  us,  what  danger  is  there  in  free  coinage  of  silver.'' 

The  only  one  that  the  gold-bug  now  advocates,  as  he  sees  that 
gold  does  not  ^o  away,  is  to  claim  that  silver  would  be  dumped 
upon  us  in  case  of  a  Free  Coinage  bill  passing — and  I  will 
pass  to  this  feature  of  the  question. 

WHY  SILVER  WOULD  NOT  BE  DUMPED  ON  THIS  '"'^UNTRY. 

In  the  foregoing  I  have  shown  from  the  beit  authority  ob- 
tainable how  much  silvei'  there  is  in  the  world  used  as  money. 


"GRESHAM'S    LAW." 


31 


The  Treasury  statement  shows  that  England  purchased 
§15,066,710  worth  of  silver  in  iSgi.all  of  it  bullion  purchased 
for  the  purpose  of  paying  India  for  wheat  that  England  had 
bought  from  that  country.  If  they  had  had  a  stock  of  bullion 
on  hand  they  would  not  have  purchased  here. 

Now,  in  regard  to  other  nations  sending  us  the  silver  thcv 
are  using  as  money  and  replacing  it  with  gold,  I  must  say.  tiiat 
the  men  who  advance  that  theor>  must  be  a  little  more  crazy 
than  the  gold  men  who  threatened  such  dire  disaster  to  the 
country  if  we  coined  silver. 

The  silver  money  of  Europe  is  coined  on  the  basis  of  a 
ratio  of  fifteen  and  one-half  to  one;  our  ratio,  as  before  men- 
tioned, is  sixteen  to  one,  because,  when  the  great  and  power- 
full  nation  (?)  Portugal  was  overruled  by  Spain  and  France  in 
the  ratio  of  sixteen  to  one,  they  failed  to  change  the  ratio 
for  the  Colonies,  and  the  silver  in  our  dollar  was  based  on  the 
quantity  of  silver  in  the  Mexican  dollar.  This,  of  itself,  makes 
an  ounce  of  the  silver  in  a  coin  in  Europe  represent  a  value  of 
SI-33K.  while  our  coins  only  represent  Si.2q  j'rt^  per  ounce. 
This  would  show  a  loss  of  say  four  cents  on  the  dollar  to  them, 
but  there  is  another  feature  that  is  ;/<?/ generally  presented,  and 
that  is  the  fact  that  these  coins  all  have  an  alloy  in  them,  iuid 
that  if  the  free  coinage  law  would  inrhKlc  a  clause  that  would 
prevent  our  mints  from  receiving  other  coins  to  melt  over  and 
coin  into  our  money,  it  would  make  such  an  operation  so  ex- 
pensive that  we  could  stand  it  if  any  nation  was  so  foolish  as 
to  try  the  experiment,  because,  after  running  over  these  coins 
to  get  the  alloy  therefrom,  losing  the  4  cents  that  they  naturally 
would  lose,  paying  ocean  freight  and  insurance  lo  this  country, 
purchasing  gold,  and  paying  freight  and  insuranc  e  back  again, 
there  would  be  a  loss  of  at  least  10  per  cent,  in  this  operation. 
And  after  they  had  made  their  changes,  and  the  balance  of 
trade  continued  our  w;iy,  t/ny  i>'Ould  tliin  have  to  />ay  us  the 
gold  t)aik  in  sitf/enient  of  debts.  Tiiis  is  one  of  the  great  things 
talked  about  by  the  advocates  of  the  gr)ld  standard.  It  is  so 
silly,  when  looked  at  from  a  business  point  of  view,  that  it  is 
laughable.  It  has  prejudiced  many  men  against  free  coinage. 
The  wild-eyed  follower  of  English  dictation  tries  to  make  out 
that  thousands  of  millions  of  silver  is  sacked  up,  ready  to  ship 
to  this  country,  when,   in  fn.t,  it   is  this  country   that,  unron- 


GRESHAM'S    LAW. 


sciously,  by  throwinp^  a  little  surplus  of  silver  on  the  markets 
of  London,  is  dcprcssin<,r  the  value  of  silver  Inillion,  and,  in 
thus  doing,  is  robhini;  her  pcoiile  of  thousands  of  millions  of 
dollars;  destroying  one  of  lur  greatest  resources  and  working 
into  the  hands  of  foreign  capitalists. 

The  United  States  should  awake  to  the  situation,  and  de- 
clare the  value  of  the  precious  metals.  Not  pay  a  dollar  to 
purchase  l)uili()n,  hut  declare  that  for  each  371.25  grains  of  pure 
silver  brought  to  her  Mints,  she  v/ill  stamp  it  as  worth  a  dollar 
and  return  it  to  the  person  who  brought  the  bullion.  Just  the 
same  way  as  the  holder  of  gold  bullion  St^^  treated. 

She  should  step  right  to  the  front,  discard  all  bullion  pur- 
chasing dodges,  and  "coin  money,  regulate  the  value  thereof" 
as  the  Constitution  provides,  and  not  speculate  in  bullion,  as 
our  English  preceptors  have  taught. 

We  own  the  great  mines  of  f.recious  metals.  They  are  ours. 
It  is  for  us  to  name  the  price,  and  not  consult  Portugal,  Switzer- 
land, Spain  or  any  other  little  principality  of  Europe.  We  are 
so  near  out  of  debt  to  foreign  countries  that  we  need  not  fear. 
Instead  of  any  danger  in  free  coinage,  it  will  result  in  the 
greatest  benefit  to  this  country.  The  Englishmen  have  long 
feared  the  day  that  we  will  pass  the  Free  Coinage  bill,  they 
know  it  will  come,  they  use  argument  and  money  freely  to 
thwart  it,  they  have  convinced  the  great  men  of  WaJl  Street 
that  they  should  stop  it,  and  the  money-lenders  of  this  country 
have  thwarted  the  people;  but  it  will  come,  because  it  is  right. 
It  is  for  our  country's  good,  and  these  same  bankers  who  now 
oppose  it  would  receive  a  benefit  in  the  change,  because,  with 
free  coinage  of  silver,  in  ten  years  time,  the  center  of  finance 
•would  be  in  New  York  instead  of  London.  We  would  control 
the  exchanges  of  the  world  instead  of  England. 

The  star  of  commercial  supremacy  would  change  again,  as 
it  has  done  each  century  for  the  past  four  hundred  years,  and 
the  children  of  to-day  would  see  the  time  when  hardly  a  nation 
of  Europe  could  go  to  war,  without  first  arranging  with  this 
country  for  the  necessary  funds. 

This  is  the  destiny  of  the  United  States.  A  nation  of  free- 
men, governing  themselves  and  the  whole  world,  by  ways  of 
peace. 


"GRESHAM'S    LAW."  33 

We  are  a  brave  people,  we  felt  not  our  strength,  until  tested 
in  that  great  civil  war.  \Vc  should  be  brave  in  finance,  and  not 
supinely  follow  the  dictation  of  mistaken  men  —  controling  the 
precious  .metals  prodijction  we  should  declare  their  value.  I 
will  give  some  startling  results  of  our  nation's  loss  by  not 
maintaining  the  silver  values,  which  I  hope  will  be  instructive. 


CHAPTER  V. 


LOSSES. 


\VHAT  THE    FARMERS   AND   PLANTERS   HAVE   LOST. 

Mining  and  farming  go  hand  in  hand,  to  prosperity  or  dis- 
pair.  It  has  always  been  so,  and  shall  so  continue.  In  the  de- 
preciation of  silver  it  is  more  particularly  shown  than  in  any 
special  instance  of  the  past  century.  The  raid  against  silver, 
throwing  it  out  of  the  mints,  naturally  left  it  to  seek  an  in- 
trinsic value  instead  of  a  legal  one,  as  had  been  the  custom  for 
two  thousand  years. 

It  naturally  had  a  tendency  to  sell  relatively  lower  than 
gold. 

The  value  of  gold  was  maintained  by  law,  but  the  whole 
effort  of  other  governments,  excepting  France,  was  to  de- 
preciate silver.  Shameful  as  it  may  appear,  our  own  great 
nation  joined  in  this  attempt  at  depreciation,  and  continues  so 
to  do.  Were  it  not  for  llie  law,  can  any  man  foresee  what  gold 
would  be  worth  as  a  commodity?     I  think  not. 

I  attach  a  statement  showing  that  everything  that  the  farmer 
or  planter  raises  has  followed  the  depreciation  of  silver: 


Average 

price  for 

5  years 

ending 

1872. 

Average 

price  for 

5  years 

ending 

1877. 

Average 

price  for 

5  years 

ending 

1882. 

Average 

price  for 

5  years 

ending 

1887. 

Average 

price  for 

4  years 

ending 

1891. 

Wheat.. 

$      1.474 
.902 
.20 
.127 

.269 
.141 

:1^ 

S      1.259 

.14S 

•'25 

.081 

.236 

.128 

.11 

.104 

$      1. 192 

.11 

.08 

.07 

.177 

.103 

•093 

.082 

$      0.962 
.562 
.102 
.092 
•07 
.17 
.0966 
•  .07 
088 

$      0.877 

Corn 

•52 

Cotton 

Bacon 

■X 

Beef,  salted 

Butter 

.052 

.158 

.076 

.066 

Cheese 

^I'Kar 

Tobacco 

LOSSES. 


35 


Now  a  good  many  men  may  say  that  the  falling  of  price  is 
a  coincidence,  and  not  a  result.  I  will  show  you  conclusively 
that  m  wheat  it  is  a  direct  jrsii/t. 

rrior  to  1878,  the  exportation  of  wheat  to  Europe  from  India 
was  so  small  that  no  one  ever  figured  it  in  results;  the  highest 
ever  known  had  been  about  4,000,000  bushels  in  one  year. 

The  money  of  India  is  the  silver  rupee,  and  it  is  coined  at 
the  ratio  of  15  to  i,  or  about  equivalent  to  Si. 38  per  ounce  of 
«.r/er. 

This  is  the  money  of  the  country  and  represents  the  value 
stamped  thereon;  as  silver  bullion  was  allowed  to  decrease  in 
■.alue  the  Englishmen  have  bought  it  and  sent  it  to  India,  coin- 
ing it  into  rupees  and  paying  for  wheat  in  that  country.  As 
silver  decreased  in  value  the  Indian  wheat  trade  increased. 

From  the  Official  Produce  Exchange  Reporter  of  New 
York,  dated  February  20,  1892,  I  clip  the  following: 

"J.  E.  Beerbohm's  Evc7iing  Corn  Trade  List  of  February 
5,  i8g2,  in  its  weekly  review,  says: 

"'The  Indian  shipments  last  week  amounted  to  70,000 
quarters,  against  27,000  quarters  in  the  corresponding  week 
last  year,  so  that  the  total  shipments  for  the  forty-two  weeks, 
from  April  1  to  January  30,  are  6,300,000  ciuarters,  against  3,030,- 
000  quarters  last  year.  The  material  decline  in  the  price  of 
silver  and  in  the  rupee  exchange  has  naturally  facilitated  ship- 
ments considcnibly;  the  present  rate  of  excliangc  is  nitiicr  lie- 
low  IS.  4d.,  whilst  at  this  time  last  year  it  was  is.  5%d.,  ami  in 
1890  about  IS.  5J^d.  When  it  is  remembered  that  a  decline  of 
J^d.  in  the  rupee  exchange  means  tiiat  the  Indian  grower  tan 
reduce  his  limits  fully  6d.  per  (|uarter,  it  will  be  seen  that 
Indian  wheat  can  to-day  be  sent  to  this  country  for  alxiut  2s. 
per  quarter  less  than  at  this  time  last  year,  leaving  the  Indian 
producer  the  same  net  result.'  " 

J.  E.  Beerbolim  is  the  official  statistician  and  reporter  for 
the  British  grain  trade,  and  for  over  twenty  years  has  been 
authority  on  quotations  and  supply  and  demand;  acre[)te<l  by 
the  grain  traders  all  over  the  wr)rld  as  such. 

The  Evening  Corn  Tnidr  /./W  is  the  oTirial  markrl  pajicr 
of  England. 

Here  is  the  best  of  English  authority  that  jilainly  says,  tiiat 
the  Indian  farmer  gets  just  as  nnich  as  last  year  for  his  wheat; 
but  on  account  of  the  low  price  of  silver  he  can  sell  it  for  2 


36 


LOSSES. 


shillings  per  quarter,  or  8  cents  per  bushel,  cheaper  than  last 
year,  in  London. 

Let  us  figure  what  this  means  to  the  fanner  in  this  country. 
With  silver  at  87  cents,  and  at  Si. 29  (where  it  should  be),  what 
difference  would  it  make  on  the  price  of  wheat  to  the  Indian 
farmer? 

Suppose  American  wheat  in  London  is  worth  Si. 10  per 
bushel,  which  would  make  its  value  95  cents  to  97  cents  at  the 
sea  board  in  this  country. 

A  merchant  in  London  buying  silver  at  87  cents  per  ounce 
could  pay  Si.50  per  bushel  in  rupees,  or  their  equivalent  in 
India,  and  still  meet  the  price  of  American  wheat  in  London, 
While,  on  the  contrary,  if  we  remonctized  silver  in  this  country, 
putting  silver  back  to  its  proper  relative  value,  the  price  of 
wheat  in  India  would  have  to  drop  about  41  cents  per  bushel 
to  enable  India  to  compete  with  us.  What  has  been  the  re- 
sult of  this  manipulation? 

Prior  to  1878  India  was  not  a  factor  at  all  in  the  wheat 
trade,  but  as  silver  bullion  has  declined,  year  by  year,  this  trade 
has  increased  to  such  an  extent,  that  the  past  ^even  years 
India  has  averaged  45,668,724  bushels  of  wheat  exports  per 
year,  and  the  past  year,  as  will  be  noticed  by  the  Beerbohm 
article,  of  February  5th,  6,300,000  quarters  or  50,400,000  bushels 
had  been  exported,  and  since  that  report  up  to  date.  May  12th, 
the  following  additional  shipments  have  been  reported,  viz.: 


Date. 

1892. 

U.  K.  Bushels. 

Continent  Bushels. 

Total  Bushels. 

February  8 

February  15 

p-ebruary  22 

February  »; 

March  7 

380,000 
360,000 
360,000 
300.000 
340,000 
440.000 
340.000 

2Ko,000 

340.000 
440.000 
320,000 
330,000 
720,000 

200,000 
i6o,coo 
270,000 
480,000 
320,000 
360,000 
220,000 
460,000 
340,000 
480.000 
6So,ooo 
600,000 
760,000 

580.000 
520,000 
630,000 
780,000 
620,000 

March  14 

800,000 

March  21 

^6o,ooo 

Maich  28 

740,000 
6Ho,ooo 

April  4 

.■Xpril  II 

920,000 
1,000,000 

900,000 
1,480,000 

.April  18 

April  25 

May  2 

LOSSES.  37 


Making  a  grand  total  of  60, 1 10,000  bushels  this  year.  An 
unprecedent  amount,  and  showing  that  as  silver  goes  down  the 
trade  is  increased. 

What  has  this  movement  lost  to  this  country?  If  wc  had 
remonetized  silver  and  kept  it  at  its  relative  value  with  gold, 
this  whole  wheat  trade  with  India  never  would  hai'e  coni- 
menced.  Europe  would  have  bought  of  us  during  the  past 
eight  years  379,681,086  bushels  more  of  wheat  than  it  did,  and 
would  have  actually  put  us  about  out  of  debt  in  any  way  to 
them. 

There  is  no  possible  way  it  can  be  figured,  but  what  we 
would  have  been  paid  $500,000,000  more  than  we  have  received 
for  wheat  alone.  We  would  have  gotten  a  better  price  for  our 
wheat  and  a  powerful  competitor  would  not  have  lieen  built  up 
in  the  grain  trade. 

The  past  year  alone  our  farmers  have  lost  fully  15  cents 
per  bushel,  on  their  whole  crop  of  wheat,  brought  about  by  this 
competition. 

It  was  estimated  last  year  that  the  farmers  of  this  country 
had  raised  600,000,000  bushels  of  wheat.  There  was  a  famine 
in  Russia,  our  greatest  competitor;  short  crops  in  England, 
France  and  Ocrmany;  a  famine  in  part  of  Austria,  and  every- 
thing tended  to  high  prices  of  wheat. 

Just  after  the  movement  commenced,  silver  was  forced 
down  by  f)ur  own  actions,  and  with  it  the  price  of  wlieat  went 
Jown,  through  the  very  operations  I  have  shown  you,  until  at 
[)rcscnt  writing  wheat  is  nearly  as  low  as  ever  known.  I  hope 
I  have  explained  it  so  llie  f.inmr-  of  this  country  fully  under- 
stand it. 

Since  the  crop  movement  commenced  we  have  exported 
wheat  and  floure(|ual  to  1 74,(;73,i;^  1  bushels.  If  it  had  not  been 
fr)r  this  Indian  competition  we  would  have  received  fully 
25  cents  per  bushel  more  for  our  wheat,  or  S43>743.4'A 

The  farmer  has  lost  on  his  whole  crop,  hf)wever.  It  is  tin- 
sur|)Ius  of  wheat  that  establishes  the  value  and  a  ce)nscrvativc 
estimate  of  the  farmer's  losses  on  this  year's  crop  of  wheat, 
arising  from  the  In»lian  competition,  is  1:  i«mi,  |..  i  IiuvIk  I, 
or  nearly  Sioo.ooo.ooo. 

The  same  operation  is  gone  through  with  on  Indian  cotton. 
Last  vcar  the  I'nitcd  States  sf>ld  js2i>o,7l-',H<;H  worth  of  cotton, 
of  which  ;>! 70,863,888  worth  went  to  Ilngland. 


.i89Ji  12 


38  LOSSES. 


A  few  years  a^'o  India  was  not  considered  a  factor  in  ihc 
cotton  trade,  but  she  has  now  nearly  obtained  control  of  the 
China  market  for  cotton  stuffs  and  yarn,  and  sends  en()Ui,di 
cotton  to  London  to  knock  down  the  price  of  our  cotton,  so  that 
as  silver  goes  down,  so  does  the  price  of  cotton. 

Silver  is  now  lower  than  it  has  ever  been  before,  and  the 
price  of  cotton  is  also  lower  than  ever  known.  It  is  the  low 
price  of  silver  that  directly  causes  depression  in  the  price  of 
wheat  and  cotton. 

A  careful  estimate  of  the  loss  of  our  planters,  by  the  fact  of 
India  throwing  over  $80,000,000  worth  of  cotton  on  the  markets, 
thus  depressing  the  price  for  our  cotton  production,  is  $70,000,- 
000.  The  price  of  bread  stuffs  tear  down  the  price  of  corn^ 
pork,  beef,  and  in  fact,  of  everything  that  is  used  as  food.  The 
most  conservative  calculation,  that  can  be  made,  would  place 
the  loss  of  the  farmers  and  planters  at  §250,000,000  the  present 
year,  caused  directly  by  the  low  price  of  silver. 

.And  in  the  past  ten  years  this  loss  represents  over  $1,000,- 
000,000  in  our  balance  of  trade  alone.  Why  was  it  lost?  Be- 
cause our  foolish  financiers  refused  to  coin  about  $200,000,000 
worth  of  silver,  but  sold  it  to  England  at  a  low  price,  and 
allowed  her  to  destroy,  not  only  silver  values,  but  the  value 
of  everything  we  have  to  sell. 

Still  it  is  said  the  farmer  is  not  a  silver  coinage  man,  and  is 
told  that  to  have  free  coinage  he  would  loose  by  it,  while  the 
men  who  stand  back  of  such  talk  represent  the  English  in- 
fluences in  this  country,  and  connive  at  the  ruin  of  our  best 
interests.  The  fact  is,  that  while  our  balance  of  trade  is  $1,000,- 
000,000  less  than  it  would  have  been  with  free  coinage,  the 
farmer  and  planter  have  lost  ten  times  that  amount  by  the  de- 
preciation brought  on  everything  he  has  produced,  and  it  is 
the  reason  that  f.irmcrs  \y,\\v  nf)t  been  prosperous  the  past  ten 
years. 

England  hopes  to  foster  this  Indian  trade,  and  be  inde- 
pendent of  the  United  States  in  regard  to  wheat  and  cotton. 
.She  would  gladly  expend  millions  to  prevent  free  coinage  of 
silver.  It  is  foolish  for  this  country  to  expect  that  nation  to 
co-operate  in  good  faith  with  us,  in  trying  to  put  silver  back 
to  its  old  position. 

Our  politicians  are  too  poor  business  men  to  see  the  point 


LOSSES.  39 

in  the  whole  transaction.     The  "tailers"  after   English   ideas 
follow  on  because  they  know  no  better. 

The  banker  fearing  the  natural  increase  of  the  currency, 
and  loss  of  a  few  cents  interest,  joins  with  the  opposition,  and 
the  farmer  is  being  misled  and  bled  by  a  press  paid  by  a 
combination  of  interests  antagonistic  to  him. 

WHAT   THE   RAILROADS   HAVE    LOST. 

The  railroads  are  interested  in  the  silver  question  as  directly 
as  the  miner  and  farmer.  The  prosperity  of  the  country  imparts 
itself  to  the  railroads  more  directly  than  to  any  other  line  of  busi- 
ness. Our  people  are  cosmopolitan;  when  they  do  well, they  are 
travelers  and  spend  money  freely.  They  travel  in  palace  cars, 
and  demand  the  best  and  pay  for  it  with  more  open  hand  than 
any  people  in  the  world.  If  we  had  had  free  coinage  of  silver 
and  the  benefits  therefrom,  times  would  be  prosperous  and 
active  in  this  country.  Money  plenty,  and  cheap.  On  our  ex- 
ports, we  as  a  nation  would  have  been  51,000,000,000  better  off, 
our  manufacturers  having  cheap  money,  would  be  pusliing 
their  trade  in  all  directions. 

In  addition  to  the  8200,000,000  more  silver  that  we  would 
have  had  in  circulation,  we  would  have  drawn  at  least  $200,- 
ocKJ,ooo  more  gold  from  other  countries,  through  our  increased 
balance  of  trade,  and  all  of  this  would  mean  business  for  our 
railroads.  But  let  us  get  at  specific  benefits  to  railro.uls.  It 
will  be  observed  that  this  country  would  have  exported  nearly 
400.000,000  bushels  more  of  wheat  had  it  not  been  for  silver's 
depression. 

On    wheat    the    railroads     aver.ige    about     35    cents     pt  1 
100   pounds   to   Chicago  and    llunce   to  tiie    seaboard,  whicli 
equals    21    cents    per    bushel.      In    this    one    iliin    the    rail 
roads  would  have  made  §80.000,000  more  in  freight  than  ihey 
have  done. 

Of  course,  no  definite  figures  could  be  given  on  another 
class  of  business,  that  would  be  the  result  of  great  prosperity, 
to  this  country,  but  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  railroads  would 
have  had  an  increase  of  tniffic  lr>  them  of  ;^2oo,ooo.ooo  if  silver 
had  not  been  demonetized. 

The  natural  increase  of  the  currency  brought  about  bv  the 
free  coinage  of  silver  would  bring  great  and  l;i>.ting  benelils  u< 
the   railroads  in  another  wav.     TLntv  -.f   inmuv   means   low 


40  LOSSES. 

interest,  and  ilic  hoiuUHl  indebtedness  of  the  railroads  could  l)c 
refunded  at  lower  rates,  thus  making  fixed  charges  lighter  and 
stock  more  valuable,  while  at  the  same  time  the  companies 
could  be  more  liberal  with  their  employees. 

Do  the  raiboads  want  to  see  England  build  up  this  Indian, 
trade  in  wheat  and  cotton  to  the  exclusion  of  our  own?  It 
certainly  is  rapidly  drifting  that  way.  A  fair  crop  in  Europe 
would  make  her  independent  of  this  country  with  silver  at 
87  cents  per  ounce,  as  I  have  shown. 

Every  railroad  man  should  be  in  favor  of  the  free  coinage 
of  silver.  Fiist-  Because  it  is  right;  and,  Second — Because  it 
is  Americark;  and.  Third — Because  it  is  for  the  public  good  and 
means  prosperity  to  this  country.  It  would  have  paid  the  rail- 
roads better  to  have  purchased  the  silver  that  this  country  has 
sold  to  Europe  the  past  sixteen  years,  and  used  it  in  trimming 
locomotives  and  cars,  than  to  have  allowed  it  to  go  into  the 
markets  of  Eurojie,  and  take  the  important  part  it  has  in  in- 
juring the  trade  of  this  country. 

It  the  depression  of  silver  t)ullion  values  continue,  and  silver 
not  remonetized,  there  will  be  a  day  not  far  distant  that  our 
great  East  and  West  lines  of  railroads  will  miss  their  export 
trade  entirely,  and  they  know  full  well  that  this  would  mean 
thousands  of  idle  cars,  depression  of  values  and  disaster. 

The  assertion  by  some  short-sighted  people  that  Europe 
would  throw  over  their  holdings  of  railroad  bonds  and 
securities  to  obtain  gold  from  this  country,  answers  itself. 

It  is  recognized  by  all  that  an  increase  of  currency  means 
j)rosperous  times,  and  prosperous  times  means  increased  value 
to  railroad  securities.  Do  these  men  think  that  an  English  in- 
vestor would  sell  his  securities  at  a  time  that  he  knew  they 
were  to  advance,  and  pay  higher  dividends?  My  reader,  I  am 
sure  that  he  would  rather  buy  more  than  dispose  of  his  present 
holdings.  It  would  be  the  logical  result  of  our  prosperity. 
To-day  the  great  bulk  of  our  securities  are  held  abroad,  because 
they  are  more  secure  or  better  paying  than  other  investments. 
There  is  no  sympathy  or  love  that  makes  a  foreigner  a  holder 
of  our  stock,  it  is  a  business  move,  and  while  they  want  them 
at  present,  they  would  want  them  more  in  case  we  had  free 
coinage  of  silver,  and  the  resultant  improvement  from  this  in- 
crease of  currency. 


LOSSES.  41 

In  this  connection  it  is  well  for  me  to  state  that  a  period  of 
general  prosperity  which  would  be  brought  about  by  activity 
in  our  mines,  with  an  increasing  currency,  would,  in  addition 
to  making  the  railroad  interests  profitable,  carry  with  them 
every  form  of  trade.  The  mechanics,  laborers  and  artisans 
of  all  kinds  would  have  work  and  liberal  pay. 

The  tide  of  progress  or  depression  is  governed  more  by  the 
mining  industry  than  any  other.  If  it  prospers,  the  whole 
country  prospers;  if  it  languishes,  so  does  the  whole  trade  of 
the  nation  languish. 

Every  laborer  in  the  nation  suffers  if  the  mining  industry  is 
destroyed. 

WH.AT  THK  MINERS  HAVE  LOST. 

One  of  the  stock  arguments  against  silver  coinage  is  that 
every  move  for  its  advancement  is  only  one  in  favor  of  the 
"silver  barons."  Unfortunately  the  silver  barons  do  not 
materalizc  in  Colorado,  the  greatest  silver  producing  State  in 
the  I/nion.  When  you  investigate  who  the  silver  barons  are 
you  will  find  a  lot  of  Pacific  coast  men  mentioned,  who  got 
rich  off  of  gold  mines  or  stock  speculations  in  the  Comstock 
lode.  Of  the  58,300,000  ounces  of  silver  produced  in  this 
country,  the  Comstock  only  furnishes  3,400,000  ounces,  and  the 
mines  of  the  silver  barons,  who  are  written  about,  could  close 
down  entirely  and  it  would  hardly  affect  the  production  of 
silver. 

Instead  of  the  silver  production  being  a  speculation  in  this 
country  it  has  become  an  industry,  in  which  thousands  of  men 
arc  engaged  and  millions  of  money  invested.  In  another 
chapter  I  will  give  definite  figures  on  silver  production  and  its 
cost,  not  derived  from  guess-work  while  silting  in  ;in  office  at 
Washington,  but  from  experience  in  managing  and  running 
silver  mines,  and  living  in  a  mining  community  for  years. 

The  silver  mine  owners  of  to-day  are  riosc-fisled  men  who 
arc  not  spenilators,  with  large  diamonds  and  heavy  wati  li 
chains.  Thiy  have  invested  money  largely  in  mining,  and 
have  dejiended  on  the  apparent  justi(  e  of  the  silver  lause  to 
carry  them  thro:!gh.  They  have  not  used  money  at  Washing- 
ton or  elsewhere  to  counteract  the  m;inufa<  tiired  public 
opinion  against  silver  as  money. 

When  you  hear  that  the  "silver  barons"  are  doing  thus  and 
so,  you  can  depend  upon  it  that  it  is  a  canard.  ^Iy  experience 
with   them  is  that   thcv  arc  too  ^tiiifv  to  assist  in  any  public 


42  LOSSES. 


good.  The  rich  silver  mine  owner  would  not  put  up  cents  to 
help  silver  coina},'C,  where  the  bankers  and  En>,dishmen  would 
put  up  dollars,  to  oppose  the  free  coinage  of  silver.  The  min- 
ing capitalists  have  been  the  greatest  losers  in  the  mining 
country,  it  is  sure;  because  after  the  labor  of  extraction  and 
smelting  has  been  gone  through  with,  and  paid  for,  tlie  discount 
on  silver  must  come  out  of  the  mine-owners  pocket;  somehow 
they  appear  to  get  in  the  same  boat  as  the  farmer,  and  let 
things  drift  along,  not  trying  to  stem  the  tide,  or  attempting  to 
correct  misapprehensions. 

The  Director  of  the  Mint  reports  that  there  has  been  made 
371.95-090  in  seignorage  in  coining  silver  the  past  thirteen 
years,  and  this  amount  has  been  directly  taken  from  the  mine 
owner's  pockets  by  the  Government;  and  on  the  $150,000,000 
sold  to  Europe  in  the  same  time  the  average  discount  has'  been 
about  20  cents  per  ounce,  or  830,000,000  more.  As  the  mine 
owner  has  squeezed  part  of  this  loss  out  of  the  laborers  whom 
he  has  employed,  and  also  has  been  enabled,  by  the  depression 
in  prices  occasioned  by  the  low  price  of  silver,  to  buy  supplies 
cheaper,  he,  while  a  large  loser,  is  not  nearly  so  much  a  loser 
as  the  farmer  and  laboring  man,  and  the  other  interests  in- 
volved. 

But  when  we  remember  that  in  1666  people  had  grown  so 
civilized  as  to  recognize  that  it  was  wrong  for  a  government  to 
speculate  off  her  people,  and  that  the  right  for  any  government 
to  purchase  bullion,  and  make  a  profit  by  coining  it,  should 
cease.  It  is  strange  that  in  this,  the  most  enlightened  nation 
on  the  globe,  we  should  go  back  to  the  system  of  the  media- val 
ages,  and  that  an  officer  of  the  Government  should  publish  it 
in  his  report,  as  if  it  showed  his  sagacity.  He  shows  how  ably 
he  has  succeded  in  depressing  the  value  of  a  precious  metal, 
that  his  country  produces  the  most  of,  and  what  a  fine  "scoo|)" 
in  a  financial  way  he  has  made  out  of  the  American  miner. 
Ik-ing  the  one  great  purchaser,  his  whole  endeavor  is  to  buy 
cheap;  and  he  is  not  enough  of  a  business  man  to  see,  that 
with  this  endeavor  he  is  tearing  down  the  value  of  everything 
that  we  sell,  and  only  making  an  ass  of  himself,  and  is  laughed 
at  by  our  British  cousins,  as  being  the  foolish  cat  that  raked  the 
chestnuts  from  the  fire.  Until  a  change  in  the  temper  of  the 
officers  of  the  Treasury,  or  an  upraising  of  the  people,  this 
thing  will  continue. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


COST  OF  SILVER  PRO' 
DUCTION. 


There  has  been  a  report  sent  out  from  the  Treasury  De- 
partment, that  silver  could  be  mined  and  sold  at  a  much  lower 
price  than  it  is  selling  for  at  present,  and  the  miner  still  make 
a  profit. 

To  a  man,  with  any  experience  in  mining,  it  is  evident  that 
the  party  who  made  this  report  did  not  know  what  he  was 
talking  about,  or  he  did  it  for  the  purpose  of  assisting  the  iVioney- 
lendcrs  in  their  scheme  to  rob  the  peojjle. 

Last  year  the  State  of  Colorado  produced  $33,348,934  worth 
of  mineral  from  her  mctaliferous  mines,  included  in  which  was 
23,102,355  ounces  of  silver  —  the  balance  gold,  copper  and 
lead.  Hardly  any  of  these  metals  were  mined  alt>ne,  they  were 
tound  in  conjunction. 

If  the  silver  mines  should  shut  down,  there  would  be  no 
lead  or  copper  mines  in  Colorado  and  but  very  few  gold 
mines. 

In  iik)i,  15,071  menengaged  in  mining  regul.irly  in  Colorailo, 
in  mines  that  shipjjed  ore,  and  were  paid  i?i4, 503,645  for  tlieir 
labor.  The  smellers  employed  3,405  men  who  were  i)aid 
J3,02X.475  for  their  labor. 

Over  i,ooQ  teamsters  and  ore  haulers  were  engaged  in  haul- 
ing ore  and  supplies  and  they  were  paid  $720,000  for  their  labor. 
There  are  three  railroads  that  run  tf>  the  mining  districts  in 
Colorado,  that  pay  monthly  ^375,000  to  their  employees.  These 
road^  are  built  (o  the  mining  districts,  and  two-thirds  of  their 
business  is  connected  with  mctaliferous  mining,  and  1  thus 
charge  $3,000,000  of  their  labor  to  this  form  of  pro(hi<linn. 
Thus  it   will    be    seen    that  $21,251,120  was   actu.illv    paiil   to 


44  COSr  OF  SILVER  PRODUCTION. 

laborers,  and  that  al)()ut  23.000  men  are  directly  ens'ajjcd  in 
the  pursuits  incident  to  the  production  of  the  mines,  after  they 
hai'e  been  discovet ed  and  opened  up.  This  does  not  count  a 
dollar  for  the  men  who,  as  prospectors,  frequently  spend  a  life- 
time looking,''  for  a  mine.  This  business  is  one  of  a  specula- 
tive nature  and  I  leave  it  out  of  my  figures. 

In  addition  to  this  labor  in  1891,  the  mines  used  $6,876,235 
worth  of  timbers  and  mine  supplies,  which  should  be  added  to 
the  above,  and  the  smelters  used  over  $3,600,000  worth  of  fuel 
and  supplies  in  reducing  the  ore,  and  fully  8500,000  worth  of 
fluxing  rock  in  addition. 

Added  together,  it  shows  that  it  cost  $32,227,355  to  produce 
the  $33,548,934  worth  of  gold,  silver,  lead  and  copper  in  the 
State  of  Colorado,  with  silver  figured' at  99.  With  silver 
figured  at  87,  the  value  of  Colorado's  production  would  have 
been  $30,777,652  and  the  whole  product  of  our  metaliferous  mines 
would  have  been  obtained  at  an  absolute  loss  of  $1,440,703. 
Last  year  it  showed  a  small  profit,  but  as  about  850,000,000  are 
invested  in  mines  and  smelters,  it  nets  hardly  3  per  cent,  under 
the  most  favorable  circumstances. 

A  few  "bonanza"  mines  pay  large  dividends,  but  the  great 
bulk  of  our  mines  are  what  are  called  steady  producers,  and 
by  mining  large  quantities  of  ore,  are  made  to  pay  only  by  the 
closest  economy. 

The  figures  given  are  taken  from  the  reports  of  the  smelters, 
mines  and  railroads,  the  State  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  and 
from  sources  that  can  be  relied  upon.  But  in  addition  to  such 
information  it  is  known  by  me  to  be  correct  from  my  own  ex- 
perience as  a  mine  manager. 

Aspen  to-day  is  the  richest  silver  mining  camp  in  the 
United  States.  Last  year  it  produced  8,474,391  ounces  of  silver, 
over  2,000,000  ounces  more  than  Leadville,  and  over  one-third 
of  the  production  of  the  State  of  Colorado.  At  this  point  the 
"bonanza "mine  is  the  "  .Mollie  Gibson,"  the  richest  silver  mine 
in  the  world.  This  mine  produced  2,071,000  ounces  of  the 
foregoing  amount. 

The  balance  of  the  mines  do  not  average  50  ounces  per  ton, 
although,  as  1  have  said  before.  Aspen  is  the  richest  mining 
camp  in  the  world. 

Most  of  the  large  producers  at  this  point,  that  employ  the 


t 


COST  OF  SILVER  PRODUCTION.  45 

(greatest  number  of  men,  have  an  average  of  less  than  40  ounces 
to  the  ton.  The  great  bulk  of  high  grade  ore  mines,  do  not 
pay  the  owners  at  all,  as  the  ore  is  usually  in  small  seams,  and 
hard  to  mine  and  separate,  and  the  great  expense  accompany- 
ing leaves  no  profit. 

For  the  purpose  of  checking  up  the  cost  of  producing  silver, 
I  will  give  my  personal  experience  in  working  a  silver  mine, 
which  with  silver  at  Si  per  ounce  could  pay  small  dividends, 
but  which  at  87  cents  is  closed  down. 

The  assay  value  of  the  ore  mined  was  371*0  ounces  of 
silver.  With  silver  at  Si. 00  per  ounce,  this  represented  S37.20 
per  ton.  Smelters  deduct  5  per  cent,  of  silver  values  for  loss 
they  make  by  oxidation,  and  otherwise,  in  smelling.  There  is 
also  from  3  to  15  per  cent,  water  in  the  rock,  which  will  average 
5  per  cent.  So,  that  ore  assaying  37,-f,  ounces,  would  only  rep- 
resent a  gross  value  of  S33.48  per  ton. 

It  costs  Si. 00  per  ton  to  put  on  cars.  The  railroad  charged 
S8.00  per  ton  to  haul  to  smelters,  and,  while  this  looks  high,  it 
IS  a  fact  that  there  is  no  Colorado  railroad  that  pays  a  liivi- 
tlend,  as  the  difficulties  of  mountain  operation  arc  .so  great.  It 
has  also  been  demonstrated  that,  with  smelters  at  the  mines, 
the  hauling  of  flux  and  fuel  costs  so  much  that  it  is  rhe.iper  to 
haul  the  ore  to  the  smelter. 

The  smelter  charged  Sio.oo  per  ton  to  smell  tlie  ore,  and 
another  Si.oo  was  paid  for  "sampling"  the  ore  to  determine  its 
value.  So,  that  S20.00  per  ton  should  be  deducted,  and  the 
mine  owners  received  net  the  sum  of  Si 348. 

Mining  silver  ore  is  not  like  mining  iron  or  coal.  The  ore 
is  m  seams,  with  waste  rock  mixed;  is  found  at  great  depths, 
with  crushing  ground  and  large  quantities  of  water  to  contend 
with.  It  must  be  taken  down  <  .irefully  and  sorted.  Croat 
drifts  must  be  run  ahead  to  dr.iin  and  (lcv«-li>|)  tin-  ground. 
Counting  this  expense  of  "dead  work,"  timbers,  piiin|iing, 
hoisting  and  mining,  it  has  been  found  that  the  average  «  o.st  of 
a  ton  of  silver  ore  amounts  to  S7.J'')  per  ton  at  the  collar  of  the 
shaft.  Deduct  this  from  the  $13.48  and  yon  have  J6.22  per  ton 
profit,  and,  as  I  mined  about  1,000  tons  fier  mouth,  the  mine 
paid  dividends  of  S6,25o  per  month  <«*  i"  in\ .  siiinni  \.iIih(I 
at  about  Sfioo.ooo. 

With  silver  at  87  cents,  however,  the  nnne  owner  would 


46  COST  OF  SILVER  PRODUCTION. 


only  receive  Si. 96  per  ton,  and  so  near  tlio  limit  of  absolute 
loss  that  he  would  be  foolish  to  continue  mining. 

As  an  example  of  how  much  our  Treasury  officers  arc  gov- 
erned by  English  ideas,  the  assertion  by  them  that  silver  can 
be  produced  at  51  ,V  cents  per  ounce,  sounds  remarkably  like  a 
report  from  the  Broken  Hill  Mines  in  Australia,  as  such  was 
reported  to  be  the  fact  on  one  year's  operation  with  their  mines. 
In  that  report,  not  a  dollar  was  allowed  for  the  great  shafts 
that  had  been  driven,  and  preliminary  work  that  necessarily 
had  to  be  gone  through  with  I)efore  the  mines  were  in  shape  to 
produce  largely. 

It  is  a  well-known  fact  to  mining  men  that  that  report  was 
used  to  boom  Broken  Hill  stock,  and,  also,  that  the  mines  there 
are  "playing  out."  While  in  one  year  they  did  produce  more 
than  Aspen,  it  is  very  doubtful  if  they  keep  up  this  year. 

If  England  and  Australia  can  produce  silver  at  such  a 
price,  why  do  they  continue  to  buy  it  of  us,  at  our  prices? 

England,  the  first  quarter  of  the  year,  bought  5,780,000 
ounces  of  this  country,  and  7,120,000  of  other  countries,  and 
shipped  13,660,000  ounces  to  Asia  during  that  time,  in  payment 
for  wheat  and  cotton  from  India.  As  the  Broken  Hill  mines 
never  produced  over  4,000,000  ounces  per  quarter,  and  then 
under  forced  output  to  boom  stock,  it  plainly  shows  that  this 
price  of  the  cost  per  ounce  was  used  by  the  friends  of  Eng- 
land in  this  country  to  cast  discredit  on  the  metal.  It  would 
have  looked  better  if  the  officials  of  our  Treasury  had  investi- 
gated what  it  cost  this  country  to  produce  silver,  and  not  quote 
from  London  a  price  that  was  given  out  to  deceive,  and  which 
was  intended  as  a  "bear  argument"  to  push  down  the  price  of 
our  silver. 

In  ever)'  phase  of  the  question  I  find  that  facts  are  thus 
garbled  to  suit  the  money-lender's  arguments. 

This  figure  sent  out  by  the  Treasury  officials,  giving  the 
cost  of  producing  an  ounce  of  silver,  was  intended  to  deceive. 
A  report  made  up  from  a  list  of  the  "bonanza  mines"  could 
easily  make  an  average  of  51^  cents  per  ounces.  Thus  the 
"Mollie  Gibson"  mine  would  figure  much  below  that  even,  but 
mining  men  know  that  such  richness  does  not  exist  for  any 
length  of  time,  in  nature;  and  figures  from  that  mine's  pro- 
duction would  not  only  be  unfair,  but  jireposterous.  Rich  as 
that  mine  is,  its  production  has  but  little  weight  in  the  great 


COST  OF  SILVER  PRODUCTION.  47 

minin<r  world,  and  the  people  of  the  country  have  too  much 
sense  to  destroy  an  industry  that  gives  employment  in  Colorado 
alone  to  23,000  men,  because  one  mine  could  stand  such  rob- 
bing as  the  action  of  the  Government  is  perpetrating. 

It  is  such  garbled  and  misleading  statements,  originating  in 
the  Treasury  Department,  that  have  produced  the  antagonism 
to  silver.  Because  a  few  men,  in  the  early  days,  became  fabu- 
lously rich  by  "stock  manipulation"  on  the  Comstock  Lode,  they 
class  all  silver  miners  as  "silver  barons,"  forgetting  that  the 
Comstock  is  as  much  a  gold  as  a  silver  mine,  and  that  it  was 
by  the  fluctuations  of  the  stock,  more  than  the  production  of 
the  mine,  that  these  fortunes  have  been  made.  The  fact  is, 
that  while  the  Colorado  mines,  as  a  whole,  did  not  lose  money 
last  year,  they  7^'ou/i/hn\i:  lost  money  with  silver  at  87  cents, 
and  no  country  in  the  world  can  produce  silver  as  cheap  as 
this  Centennial  State. 

^  further  cheapening  of  silver  means  destruction  to  Colo- 
rado's prosperity.  It  means  disaster  to  the  whole  Rocky 
Mountain  region.  A  stoppage  of  the  silver  mines  in  tlie 
United  States  means  a  stop|)agc  of  three-fourths  of  our  gold 
production.  It  means  a  stop|)age  of  one-half  of  our  lead  pro- 
duction. It  means  a  stoppage  of  one-third  of  our  cop[)er  pro- 
duction, because  it  is  the  silver  value  that  brings  that  amount 
of  other  metals  from  our  mines. 

If  our  silver  mines  should  shut  down  it  would  mean  a  de- 
crease in  the  production  of  wealth  by  our  nation,  amounting  to 
an  aggregate  of  nearly  Si5o,ooo,ooo  per  year,  although  we  only 
I)roduce  i;8,ooo,ooo  ounces  of  silver,  and  in  addition  it  would 
destroy  the  value  of  investments  amounting  to  as  many  mill- 
ions more. 

There  was  no  time  that  silver  could  be  produce<l  as  cheaply 
as  last  year,  and  no  section  of  the  world  c  an  produce  it  as 
cheaply  as  Colorado.  The  fact  is  a  silver  <lolIar  represents  its 
value  in  labor,  when  you  take  the  vast  amount  of  money  and 
labor  that  is  thrown  away  in  prospc-riing.  which  I  iiavr  entirely 
eliminated  from  my  figures,  it  makes  tiie  silver  nnned  worth 
its  coinage  value,  and  my  figures  prove  conclusively  that  with 
silver  at  the  jiresent  price,  the  mines  in  Cf>lorado  that  operated 
last  year,  would  as  a  whole,  lose  money,  and  that  in  fact,  not 
over  ten  mines  in  the  State  could  m.ikc  money.  To  take  a  few 
bonanza  mines  and  estimate  cost  of  production  of  silver  from 


48  COST  OF  SILVER  PRODUCTION. 


their  reports,  is  as  ridiculous  as  to  assert  that  all  men  earn  a 
thousand  dollars  a  day  in  New  York,  because  some  man 
found  a  bond  of  that  value  in  the  <;utter.  The  operations  of 
the  Comstock  lode  last  year  show  a  loss  to  the  stockholders, 
the  assessments  on  mine  owners  there  being  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  dollars  in  excess  of  dividends  paid.  While  the 
Consolidated  California  and  Virginia  paid  §216,000,  the  Belcher, 
Best  and  Belcher,  Crown  Point,  Hale  and  Norcross,  Sierra 
Nevada,  Savage  and  Potosi  mines  alone,  assessed  their  stock- 
holders $828,000,  and  these  are  but  few  of  the  instances  that 
can  be  cited. 

The  fact  is,  that  it  is  the  laborer  who  gets  the  greatest 
dividends  from  silver  mining,  and  my  figures  show  why  the 
production  of  silver  does  not  create  the  number  of  "silver 
barons"  that  used  to  be  developed  from  the  industry. 

It  also  shows  that  a  man  sitting  in  a  cozy  office  in  Washing- 
ton can  figure  out  results  that  are  surprising  to  the  men.  who 
produce  silver,  and  misleading  to  the  world  at  large. 

It  also  shows  that  after  silver  mines  are  opened  up  and  de- 
"  veloped,  that  it  costs  about  93  cents  per  ounce  to  produce  silver, 
and  that  when  the  costs  of  prospecting,  and  the  millions  of 
dollars  lost  in  digging  where  no  silver  mine  exists,  by  mistaken 
men,  are  taken  into  consideration,  the  silver  in  a  silver  dollar 
no  more  than  represents  a  dollar's  value  of  labor.  It  is  and 
always  has  been  so,  and  nothing  to-day  so  nearly  represents  an 
absolute  value  as  the  silver  dollar. 

This  chapter  is  written  to  correct  a  misapprehension,  and 
not  as  an  argument. 

The  fact  that  gold  was  produced  at  a  cost  of  but  $7  per  ounce 
in  California  is  well  known,  and  that  it  also  cost  but  $11  per 
ounce  in  Australia  at  one  time. 

Nevertheless  the  Bank  of  England  never  receded  from  its 
position  as  defined  by  law  under  the  Bank  charter  act,  but  con- 
tinued to  pay  j^3,  17s.  Qd.  per  ounce  for  all  brought  to  them, 
and  it  was  merely  considered  a  piece  of  good  fortune  that  the 
owners  of  those  mines  could  make  such  a  profit,  and  was  an 
incentive  to  others  to  seek  out  and  find  other  mines  of  precious 
metals. 

It  was  not  supposed  that  too  much  money  could  be  ob- 
tained by  any  nation,  until  the  bo*id-holders  of  the  present 


COST  OF  SILVER  PRODUCTION.  49 


generation  have  advanced  the  theory.  The  cost  of  the  pro- 
duction of  gold  never  was  connected  with  its  use  as  money, 
neither  should  the  cost  of  production  of  silver.  However,  if 
any  argument  is  to  be  used  in  this  phase,  it  is  all  in  favor  of 
silver,  as  it  certainly  costs  nearer  its  value  in  labor  than  gold. 
It  takes  more  science  and  skill  to  produce  silver  than  gold,  and 
because  of  scientific  knowledge  we  should  not  allow  ourselves 
to  be  swindled  out  of  our  profits  by  mistaken  financiers. 

BOO.M   LITKRATURli. 

To  a  great  extent  the  silver  miners  have,  by  drawing  the 
"long  bow,"  assisted  in  destroying  confidence  in  silver.  The 
"boomer"  of  the  silver  mining  camp  is  usually  an  enthusiast, 
who  builds  a  great  future  for  his  camp  on  as  small  a  basis 
as  the  one  on  which  a  gold  mono-metalist  would  want  our 
finances  placed.  He  reports  millions  in  sight,  and  asks  capital 
to  help  him  get  it  out,  and  capital  goes  in  with  him,  without 
thinking  a  moment  of  the  fact  that  if  the  boomer  had  millions  in 
sight  he  would  not  need  his  capital. 

In  1873  one  of  the  greatest  injuries  done  to  silver  was  the 
ridiculous  report  of  the  Comslock  lode's  great  riclnKss.  It  was 
the  leverage  used  by  the  Englishmen  to  raise  any  amount  of 
corruption  fund  necessary  to  liring  about  the  demonetization 
of  silver,  as  the\  represented  that  silver  would  in  a  short  time 
be  so  plentiful  in  the  United  States  that  she  would  soon  control 
the  value  of  the  precious  metal  Ijy  controlling  the  production. 

The  talk  was  that  there  were  ^175,000,000  in  "sight,"  when 
in  fact  there  have  never  been  Sio,ooo,ooo  in  "  sight"  in  that  vast 
line  of  properties,  and  half  of  that  value  was  in  gold;  it  was  to 
"boom"  the  stock,  and  impress  the  fcuci^n  visitors  with  its 
great  value  that  caused  this  misrepresentatinn. 

The  boomer  will  go  into  figures,  and  state  that  there  is 
|ro,ooo,ooo  in  a  mine,  but  when  it  is  investigated  it  will  l)e 
found  that  he  has  figured  from  a  streak  of  20  ounce  ore  with 
heavy  silica  base,  absolutely  unmarkctaljle,  and  that  his  figures 
are  based  on  the  supposition  that  his  streak  of  ore  runs  a 
1,000  or  3,000  feet  in  depth.  If  things  would  continue  as  he 
hoped  there  would  be  10,000,000  ounces  there,  but  as  it  wotild 
cost  nearly  twice  what  it  was  worth  to  mine  it  and  reduce  it,  its 
value  would  be  absolutely  nothing. 

The  present  year,  we  have  one  of  those  remarkable  waves 


50  COST  OF  SILVER   rR(  )1)UCT10N. 

of  boominfj  of  mining  camps.  We  hear  of  wonderful  strikes 
at  Crecdc  of  silver  ore,  and  at  Cripple  Creek  of  gold  ore. 
There  are  valuable  iniiK's  at  l)olli  of  these  points,  but  the 
assertion  that  Crcede  is  a  camp  that  would  rival  Aspen  or 
Leadville  in  production  in  this  year,  or,  in  fact,  in  any  other  in 
the  near  future,  is  a  ridiculous  statement.  Aspen  will,  un- 
doubtedly, produce  nearly  as  much  as  Leadville  and  Creede 
put  together,  in  1892,  and  she  will  not  increase  much  over  last 
year,  if  any. 

It  is  doubtful  if  Colorado  produces  as  much  as  last  year  of 
the  precious  metals,  even  with  both  of  these  new  finds. 

There  arc  two  good  veins  discovered  at  Creede  of  valuable 
silver  ore,  but  a  man  who  would  estimate  over  1,500,000  ounces 
in  sight  in  that  camp,  considering  the  faults,  and  possibilities 
of  the  future,  should  be  classed  as  a  boomer,  and  let  drop  at 
that.  Also  at  Cripple  Creek  there  have  been  three  good  leads 
uncovered.  One  of  which  gives  remarkable  evidence  of  value, 
but  if  Cripple  Creek  produces  over  $1,500,000  this  year  I  will 
be  surprised,  and  this  is  nothing  against  that  camp,  as  I  have 
investigated  it  thoroughly  and  believe  it  gives  promise  of  some 
of  the  greatest  gold  mines  in  tliis  country. 

In  fact,  mining  is  an  industry.  It  takes  time  to  develope  the 
mines,  and  until  they  arc  developed,  they  cannot  produce  an 
amount  of  ore  enough  to  affect  the  general  production  of  the 
country.  Four  years  from  now  these  new  camps  can  produce 
large  amounts,  but  it  is  an  injury  to  the  business  to  have  these 
wild  representations  go  abroad. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


INTERNATIONAL  CON 
FERENCE. 


One  of  the  greatest  things  that  has  stood  in  tlic  way  of  free 
coinage  is  the  fact  that,  a  large  class  of  men  believe  it  is  neces- 
sary to  have  a  conference  of  nations,  that  would  jointly  agree 
to  remonetize  silver  and  establish  a  ratio  of  value. 

Now  a  person  who  thinks  tlial  Kn','land  would  join  (except 
to  prevent  action),  in  such  a  conference,  under  the  present  cir- 
cumstances, is  too  poor  a  business  man  to  be  considered  as 
really  sane. 

The  demonetization  of  silver,  and  < onsccjuent  dif»-issi'<f 
bullion  value,  have,  to  a  certain  extent,  been  an  ICnglish  move. 

In  the  past  si,\teen  years  Kngland  has  l)y  that  move  saved 
$1,000,000,000,  l)y  working  the  people  of  the  L'nitcd  States  as 
"suckers,"  bribing  her  officers,  and  doing  everything  fair  or 
unfair,  to  retain  her  advantage,  and  it  has  been  »\cll  played,  as 
all  the  world  knows.  She  has  no  stork  of  silver,  ;ind  with  the 
exception  of  those  in  Australia,  she  has  no  silver  mines  in  iier 
vast  possession.  She  is  antagonistic  to  it  and  would  be  foolish 
to  attempt  to  confer,  in  reg.ird  to  il,  unless  she  saw  a  way  to 
further  degrade  it. 

.She  wants  to  build  up  India  and  tear  down  the  I'nited  Stales, 
and  she  is  doing  everything  she  ran  to  that  end.  It  is  simply 
imbecility  in  finance  for  an  American  to  propose  such  a  thing 
to  England. 

France  would  undoubtedly  co-operate  with  us,  but  she  runs 
her  finances  her  own  way,  and  don't  rare  what  England, 
Germany  or  any  other  country  does.  I  think  her  members  to 
such  a  conference  would  only  sit  and  look  on,  saying.  "■''.  uhii 
you  please  we  can  take  care  of  ourselves." 


52       INTERNATIONAL  CONFERENCE. 


For  the  United  States  to  consult  Portugal,  Spain,  Switzer- 
land, Italy,  Austria,  Denmark  and  Swecden  on  such  a  a  matter 
is  so  ridiculous  that  a  man  who  would  propose  it  should  blush 
with  shame.  They  have  no  finances  or  money  to  maintain.  The 
United  States  could  absorb  all  their  currency  or  double  it,  and 
not  feci  the  loss  or  gain  in  any  way.  It  would  be  like  Jay 
Gould  taking  the  advice  of  an  office  boy  to  invite  these  nations 
to  such  a  conference. 

Germany  will  do  as  England  suggests,  so  it  is  useless  to 
talk  of  a  conference.  It  is  only  a  trick  to  call  the  attention  of 
the  people  from  the  true  issue,  and  a  man  that  considers  it 
seriously  is  absolutely  too  poor  a  business  man  to  be  mentioned 
as  an  authority  on  such  a  subject.  That  is  not  the  way  such 
things  have  been  brought  about.  It  is  the  nation  that  has  the 
balance  of  trade  in  her  favor,  that  has  accumulated  more  of 
the  precious  metals  than  any  other,  that  has,  by  her  laws,  set 
the  value  of  the  precious  metals. 

With  a  ratio  of  i6  to  i,  it  is  perfectly  safe.  We  might  re- 
ceive foreign  coin  if  we  established  a  ratio  of  14  to  i,  or  less, 
but  not  a  dollar  could  come  to  us  at  the  ratio  of  16  to  i. 

The  United  States  should  do  this  independently,  it  is  her 
place  to  do  it,  and,  if  she  did  it,  the  value  would  be  recognized 
all  over  the  world. 

The  attempt  to  form  a  conference  of  nations  to  agree  with 
us  is  puerile.  Not  a  nation  in  the  world  would  jom  in,  unless 
it  saw  some  way  to  get  hold  of  our  silver  cheap,  or  in  some 
way  better  us  in  a  trade  of  some  kind.  Let  me  give  you  an 
instance  : 

If  England  could  induce  our  foolish  friends  in  favor  of  a 
conference  to  establish  a  new  ratio  in  the  United  States  and 
England  of  say  20  to  i,  then  our  robbery  would  be  complete, 
if  she  left  the  Indian  and  Asiatic  standard  of  11;  to  i  intact; 
and  it  would  tic  our  hands  and  make  India  the  base  of  European 
supplies  of  wheat  and  cotton  for  all  time.  Our  balance  of 
trade  would  be  destroyed  and  England  would  retain  control 
of  finances. 

Can  it  be  possible  that  the  people  of  the  United  States  can- 
not see  the  position?  It  would  figure  this  way  on  wheat:  A 
ratio  of  20  to  i  would  mean  that  the  silver  ounce  would  be 
worth  S1.03  in  this  country,  while  in  India,  it  would  be  worth 
Si.38.     So,  that  an  Englishman  could  buy  wheat  in  India,  pay- 


INTERNATIONAL  CONFERENCE.       53 

ing  $1.38  to  the  merchant  there,  and  would  only  be  able  to  pay 
our  farmer  S1.03.  The  Indian  farmer's  money  would  be  just 
as  good  to  him  as  ours  would  be  to  our  own  farmer,  and  he 
would  have  35  cents  per  bushel  margin  to  go  on  as  against  our 
farmer. 

This  country  is  already  a  tariff  country,  and  we,  to  a  certain 
extent,  understand  tariff  legislation.  We  know  that  a  tariff 
can  stop  excessive  importation,  by  a  material  increase,  and, 
that  by  a  decrease,  we  can  induce  importation. 

I  have  shown  that  it  is  by  the  bahmce  of  trade  being  in  our 
favor  that  we  are  strong  and  independent  in  hnances.  From 
this  forward,  with  free  coinage  of  silver,  let  us  adopt  the 
"French  idea"  of  tariff,  protecting  our  balance  of  trade  by 
tariff  legislation  and  thus  prevent  our  gold,  silver  or  any  other 
money.from  leaving  the  country.  It  is  entirely  practical,  and 
would  enable  us  to  become  so  rich  and  powerful  that  before 
the  dawn  of  another  century  we  would  be  so  well  fortified  in 
our  position  that,  instead  of  thinking  of  conferences,  we  would 
dictate  finances  to  the  whole  world,  and  a  dollar  stamped  by 
the  United  States  of  America  would  be  a  dollar,  and  recognized 
as  such  from  pole  to  pole. 

Our  coin  would  be  good  in  any  country,  because  it  would  be 
the  token  of  value,  backed  by  the  richest  and  most  powerful 
nation,  and  guaranteed  to  be  good  for  its  face  value,  for  any 
necessity  or  comfort  that  man  could  desire. 

As  my  idea  is  that  the  balanc  e  of  trade  is  the  governing 
feature  of  the  si-lver  question,  and  to  take  you  further  into  tlie 
reasons  for  my  position,  I  wish  to  rail  your  attention  to  an 
analysis  of  our  trade  with  the  various  countries  of  the  world, 
and  show  their  connection  with  this  subject.  1  hope  it  will  l.t- 
interesting  to  every  reader. 

To  show  further  the  great  future  before  us  if  the  oppor- 
tunity is  grasped,  I  call  attention  to  the  f:n  t  that  the  gentlemen 
that  represented  the  South  American  Republics  in  the  lonfer- 
ence  at  Washington,  expressed  a  willingness  to  accept  the 
American  dollar  as  the  unit  of  value,  but  were  restrained  from 
taking  action  by  the  gold-bug  element  that  had  been  .ippointed 
on  that  conmiission  by  an  admini^tr.ition  hostile  to  the  use  of 
silver  as  money. 

Further  along  I  will  show  that  it  is  the  silver-using  rountries 
that  we  owe  money  on  our  i;alances  of  trade  .ind  ih;ii  llie  gold- 


54       INTERNATIONAL  CONFERENCE. 


usinj;  ((uiiurR's  owe  us  money.  The  action  of  these  jrcntlomcn 
completely  refute  the  assertion  that  the  silver  is  a  dishonest 
dollar,  as  the  people  %ve  owe  money  do  not  think  so,  except 
in  the  single  exception  of  the  holder  of  interest-bearing 
securities. 

If  we  arc  to  have  a  conference,  would  il  not  be  wise  to  call 
on  Brazil, our  largest  creditor,  instead  of  Portugal  or  Denmark? 

The  fact  is,  the  whole  world  that  wc  pay  money  to  in  the 
regular  course  of  business,  is  ready  and  anxious  to  follow  us  in 
any  such  move  that  we  should  inaugurate,  and  it  is  only  our 
own  foolish  advisers  in  political  economy,  that  are  i)aid  by  the 
money  power  to  keep  up  the  robl)ery  of  our  people  or  are  too 
lazy  to  investigate  the  true  situation  that  assumes  that  a  con- 
ference would  amount  to  anything. 


CHAPTER  \-III. 


TARIFF    AND    FREE 
COINAGE. 


Before  going  into  the  details  of  our  foreign  commerce  I 
wish  to  advance  my  idea  uf  the  uses  and  benefits  of  a  tariff.  I 
will  not  follow  out  the  beauties  of  a  tariff  for  protection  or  one 
for  revenue  only— the  politicians  have  undouljttdly  made  us  ail 
"tired"  on  these  two  features;  but  I  will  advance  a  theory  that 
a  tariff  can  be  of  more  value  than  just  to  foster  industries  or 
derive  a  revenue  for  the  Government. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  my  whole  argument  is  based  on  the 
assumption  that  while  we  keep  other  countries  paving  us 
money,  we  could  have  free  coinage  of  silver  and  would  only 
be  increasing  our  currency  and  strengthening  our  finances  by 
so  doing.  The  tariff  slioulil  be  used  as  a  corrective  in  such 
cases,  and  I  will  call  attention,  as  wc  go  along,  to  how  easy  and 
profitable  it  wouhl  be  for  us  to  adopt  the  theory. 

Understand,  that  tariff  legislation,  such  as  I  propose,  i.^  not 
necessary  now,  nor  has  it  been  for  the  past  sixteen  years,  but 
in  case  wc  would  find  a  balance  of  trade  running  against  us, 
then  it  could  be  utilized,  and  m.ike  our  position  perfectly  safe 
with  free  coinage,  as  wc  would  be  in  the  >;ime  position  ;is 
France  is  to-day. 

Her  policy  is  to  so  regulate  her  imports  and  ex|»orts  bv 
tariff  regulations,  as  to  keep  other  < ountries  |)aying  money  to 
her,  and  thus  increase  her  riches — and  it  is  this  only  reason 
that  enables  her  to  keep  her  largo  reserves  of  gold  and  silver. 
If  her  statesmen  find  that  her  bal.ince  of  trade  is  against  her, 
they  not  only  impose  a  heavy  tariff  on  ( ertain  things  that  the) 
import,  that  they  can  do  without,  or  absolutely  prohibit  its 
importation  altogether. 


56  TARIFF  AXU  FREE  COINAGE. 

Last  year  wc  p.ud  France  nearly  $15,000,000  in  gold  to 
settle  our  balance  of  track-,  and  the  French  people  found  less 
trichina  in  our  pork  at  once,  and  they  reduced  the  duty  on  our 
flour  also.  If  the  balance  of  trade  had  been  the  other  way  the 
wise  Frenchmen  would  have  still  declared  our  pork  diseased. 

So  the  United  States  could  by  tariff  regulate  her  trade  in 
the  same  way.  An  investigation  of  our  imports  shows  that. we 
are  the  greatest  nation  of  spendthrifts  in  the  world,  and  that  of  the 
§842,000,000  worth  of  goods,  etc.,  that  we  purchased  from  other 
countries  in  1891,  nearly  one-third  of  that  vast  amount  was  for 
luxuries  and  things  it  would  be  better  not  to  have  had.  We 
buy  things  that  we  had  better  raise  ourselves,  or  go  without, 
and  we  frequently  buy  them  of  people  who  do  not  trade  with 
us  in  return.  The  reciprocity  feature  of  the  present  tariff  is  a 
good  one,  because  it  would  be  a  corrective  of  such  a  balance 
of  trade.  This  country  has  got  to  a  point  that  it  should  notify 
the  different  nations  that  sell  largely  to  us,  and  buy  little  in  re- 
turn, that  unless  they  can  give  our  trade  a  fair  show  in  their 
markets  we  will  be  obliged  to  charge  a  tariff  on  their  goods 
and  check  the  importations  until  they  nearly  balance  their 
purchases  from  us.  What  nonsense  it  is  for  us  to  buy  millions 
of  dollars'  worth  of  beet  sugar  from  Austria-Hungary  and 
send  over  the  casA  to  pay  for  it,  when  that  country  hardly  buys 
a  thing  of  us. 

We  should  be  made  to  get  along  without  her  beet  sugar, 
unless  she  buys  something  of  us  in  return.  We  can  produce 
beet  sugar  as  well  as  they  can.  We  should  put  such  a  tariff 
on  that  sugar  as  to  make  a  loss  of  money  in  sending  it  here, 
or  the  importation  of  beet  sugar  from  Austria  should  be  pro- 
hibited. We  should  declare  that  it  has  bacteria  in  it  and  stop 
it  from  coming  here. 

The  same  with  the  wool  from  Turkey,  in  Asia,  and  a  great 
many  things  that  I  will  call  attention  to  in  the  detailed  state- 
ments. 

We  could  completely  fortify  our  position  in  the  future,  in 
case  we  should  declare  for  the  free  coinage  of  silver,  by  such 
a  tariff  move,  and  it  would  make  our  country  only  the  more 
rich  and  powerful. 

The  McKinlcy  bill  in  many  ways  has  done  the  very  thing 
I  propose,  and  although  it  was  badly  cried  down  by  a  great 


TARIFF  AND  FREE  COINAGE  57 

many  people  at  the  start,  it  will  be  found,  on  close  study,  that 
it  was  a  wise  move  in  the  right  direction.  1 1  did  put  a  tariff  on 
many  things  that  has  checked  importation,  but  it  very  much 
cheapened  the  tariff  on  many  necessities.  My  investigations 
lead  me  to  believe  it  the  best  arranged  tariff  law  we  have  ever 
had  in  this  country.  It  strengthens  the  position  of  this  country, 
and  makes  the  proposition  of  the  free  coinage  of  silver  more 
safe  than  before. 

As  a  tariff  of  some  kind  is  a  necessity,  why  not  have  an 
American  tariff  instead  of  a  protective  tariff  or  a  tariff  for 
revenue  only? 

Let  it  be  based  on  the  principle  that  if  nations  buy  freely 
of  us  we  will  not  charge  a  tariff  on  their  production,  and,  oh  the 
contrary,  if  they  do  not  buy  freely  of  us,  by  a  tariff  preventing 
them  selling  goods  in  our  markets. 

This  is  a  principle  in  business  that  is  carried  down  through 
all  branches  of  trade ;  it  is  as  right  for  nations  to  adopt  it  as  for 
individuals;  it  is  the  fundamental  starting  point  of  business 
relations  and  is  only  common  sense. 

Why  should  we  pay  great  balances  to  nations  antagonistic 
to  us  for  things  that  we  could  get  along  without  or  buy  from 
our  friends? 


CHAPTER    IX. 


BALANCES  OF  TRADE. 


In  tlii?;  chapter  I  present  a  compilation  of  our  trade  with 
the  world,  divided  in  such  a  way  as  to  be  afterward  subdivided 
for  the  purpose  of  explaining  the  various  featMres  that  I  wish 
to  present. 

Our  total  imports  last  year  were  $844,916,196,  and  our  ex- 
ports 8884,448,810,  the  latter  amount,  including  foreign  and 
ilomestic  exports,  showing  a  net  balance  June  30,  i8go,  to  June 
30,  iSgi.of  839,532,614  inourfavor,  hut  in  theseven  months, June 
30,  1891,  to  February  i,  1892,  this  balance  has  rapidly  increased, 
Jis  has  been  shown  in  the  statements  of  exports  and  imports 
that  I  have  given  previously. 

The  seven  months  show  a.  balance  in  our  favor  of 
$192,871,478. 


BALANCES  OF  TRADE 


59 


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6o  BALANCES  OF  TRADE. 

It  will  be  observed  that  wliile  some  of  the  Europecin 
countries  have  a  balance  of  trade  against  us,  that  the  geo- 
graphical district  of  Europe  owed  us  §245,492,723  for  goods 
purchased,  and,  in  addition  to  this  vast  amount,  we  shipped  to 
Europe  §87,746,147  in  gold  and  silver,  so  that  we  paid  indebt- 
edness or  laid  a  basis  for  exchange  payments  to  other  countries, 
amounting  to  $333,238,870. 

From  this  amount  we  paid  in  exchange  on  London 
principally  that  vast  debt  we  owed  South  America.  While  we 
sent  to  South  America  $2,601,703,  the  States  in  South  America 
sent  us  62,582,140  in  coin  and  bullion,  nearly  balancing  coin 
shipments,  but  we  paid  in  exchange  on  London  885,039,288 
for  goods  purchased  from  them  more  than  we  sent  to  those 
countries. 

Also  with  Asia  and  Occanica— in  my  statements  for  that 
district  the  movement  of  coin  will  be  explained — it  will  still  be 
seen  that  while  we  purchased  $53,717,969  more  goods  than  we 
sold,  we  only  sent  that  geographical  district  $[,160,384  in  coin 
more  than  we  received,  and  we  also  paid  the  balance,  $52,557,- 
585,  in  exchange  on  London. 

The  West  Indies  and  Central  America  also  scored  a  balance 
against  us,  amounting  to  $5,170,289,  and  in  addition  they  sent 
US$717,623  in  bullion  more  than  we  sent  to  them,  so  that  we 
paid  them  $5,887,912  in  exchange  on  London. 

Cuba  sent  us  $1,216,682  more  bullion  than  we  shipped  them, 
and  it  was  mostly  gold,  as  no  country  other  than  Mexico  and 
Columbia  sent  us  as  much  as  $1,000,000  worth  of  silver  in  1891. 
So  that  we  paid  in  exchange  on  account  of  Cubian  importa- 
tions and  bullion  $50,706,189. 

While  we  paid  in  exchange  for  an  apparent  balance  of 
§12,324,367  in  favor  of  Mexico,  when  our  trade  with  that 
country  is  analysed  it  is  a  doubt  in  my  mind,  if  it  is  a  disad- 
vantage to  us,  and  as  Mexico  has  a  special  chapter  I  will  let  it 
go  for  the  present. 

The  trade  with  other  countries  is  so  near  a  "stand-off"  that 
it  is  hardly  worth  while  counting  them  in  our  calculations. 

.Summed  up  in  a  concise  manner,  we,  by  selling  goods  and 
shipping  gold  and  silver,  established  a  credit  in  London 
amounting  to  $333,238,870,  and  from  that  amount  paid  by  drafts; 
South  America,  $85,039,288;  Asia  and  Oceanica,  $52,557,585; 
West  Indies  and  Central  America,  $5,887,912;  Cuba,  $50,706,- 


BALANCES  OF  TRADE.  6i 

189,  and  Mexico,  812,324,367,  which  would  leave  a  balance  of 
$126,723,529  that  Europe  would  owe  us.  Europe  has  no  gold 
or  silver  to  spare,  it  buys  its  supply  from  us,  as  shown  by  our 
statistics,  and  this  §126,000,000  last  year  was  paid  by  sendintj 
us  back  bonds,  and  stocks  purchased  from  us,  when  the  balance 
of  trade  was  going  England's  way.  The  great  bulk  of  the 
Atchison,  Topeka  &  Santa  Fe  Railroad  came  back  to  us  in  that 
year,  and  we  are  gradually  drawing  all  of  the  American 
securities  from  the  English  market  in  this  way. 

American  securities  are  always  quoted  dull  of  late  in 
London,  and  any  of  their  traders  who  want  to  speculate  in 
American  stocks  send  their  orders  to  New  York,  because  they 
have  too  few  stocks  to  operate  with,  to  make  speculation  secure 
in  London.  It  is  better  it  should  be  so,  as  it  makes  brokerage 
in  New  York  and  profits  for  Americans. 

With  the  free  coinage  of  silver,  and  the  benefits  arising 
therefrom,  not  only  our  own  stocks,  but  the  bonds  of  Russia, 
and  every  borrowing  nation,  would  be  governed  by  the  New 
York  quotations  in  ten  years  time. 

We  would  be  the  nation  that  had  money  to  lend,  instead  of 
our  friends  across  the  water,  and  owning  the  great  mines,  and 
making  more  money  than  all  the  world  combined,  this  great 
trade  in  exchange  would  concentrate  in  New  York.  W'e 
would  furnish  exchange  for  others,  and  instead  of  the  English 
"pound"  that  is  made  stable  by  English  law,  we  would  estab- 
lish the  American  clollar  as  the  unit  of  value  all  over  the  work!, 
and  sustain  it  by  law,  as  should  be  done  at  present. 

It  is  America's  opportunity  and  should  not  be  lost. 

r.UROPKAN    HALANCES. 

I  present  the  following  statement  of  our  account  with 
European  nations: 


02 


BALANCES  OF  TRADE. 


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I 

BALANCES  OF  TRADE.  63 

You  will  notice  that  the  very  first  nation  on  the  list  is 
Austria-Hungary,  with  a  balance  of  §10,284,227  against  us,  and 
hardly  any  purchases  from  us.  Now,  what  do  we  buy  of 
Austria,  which  is  an  unfriendly  nation  and  a  competitor  of  ours 
in  several  branches  of  trade,  that  wc  could  get  along  without? 

I  find  we  bought  83,957.310  worth  of  beet  sugar,  S2, 595.659 
of  which  came  in  free  of  duty,  as  low  grade  sugar.  We  bought 
8105,386  worth  of  wool,  $281,592  worth  of  beans  and  peas, 
§299,781  worth  of  manufactured  wood  and  §745,200  worth  of 
buttons,  which  makes  an  aggregate  of  §5,389,269.  or  over  half 
of  the  balance  of  trade  they  had  against  us,  that  was  paid  for 
those  things  we  ought  to  raise  or  manufacture  ourselves.  It  is 
all  right  to  buy  Austria's  prunes,  glassware  and  such  things 
that  we  cannot  raise  or  make  ourselves,  but  it  is  folly  for  us  to 
buy  those  things  we  can  do  without,  unless  Austria  returns  the 
compliment  in  purchasing  from  us.  We  should  put  a  duty  on 
those  things  I  have  enumerated,  so  high  that  it  sliould  be  held 
out  of  the  country. 

Wc  should  trade  with  those  who  trade  with  us. 

I  pass  by  the  countries  that  trade  liberally  with  us  and  pay 
us  balances,  but  will  show  the  class  of  extravagance  in  our 
purchases  by  analysing  our  balance  sheet  with  I- ranee.  We 
bought  §15,995805  worth  of  goods  more  of  France  tliaii  she 
bought  of  us.  We  paid  her  in  gold  §14. 586,849  on  that  balance. 
I  find  that  we  bought  §45,400,000  worth  of  silks,  dress  goods, 
wines,  precious  stones  and  jewelry,  cotton  fabrics,  china  and 
anchovies.  I  also  find  that  the  McKinley  i)ill  imposed  a  duty 
on  all  of  our  imp()rt>  from  France  exrcjit  §io,vv;.344-  't  ^^'-'^ 
the  fear  of  France  that  our  statesmen  would  impose  further 
duties  on  their  goods,  to  balance  our  trade  with  them;  that  in- 
duced them  to  let  in  our  jiork  .ig.iin  and  reduce  the  duty  on 
our  flour. 

Had  the  balance  of  tr.ide  been  ag.iinst  I" ranee,  no  argument 
would  have  changed  her  position. 

Germany  comes  next,  with  a  balance  of  84.520.927  against 
us.  and  wc  shi|.ped  to  CJcrmany  §12.926.574  in  gold  more  than 
she  shipped  ns,  to  pay  that  b.ilanro  and  part  of  the  l)alance  wc 
owed  Austria.  As  Austria  is  attempting  l(.  resume  specie  pay- 
ments after  a  period  of  practical  bankruptcy,  she  is  anxious  to 
secure  a  stock  of  gold.     If  wc  had  a  law  j)rohibiting  the  im- 


64  BALANCES  OK  TRADE. 

portation  of  beet  sugar,  Germany  would  have  been  largely  our 
dcljtor.  We  purchased  the  enormous  amount  of  Si  2.891,689 
worth  of  beet  sugar  from  Germany,  $5. 767,692  worth  of  wliic  li 
came  in  free  of  duty.  \\'c  also  lx)ught  8780,739  wortli  of  rags, 
$1,872,909  of  rice  and  rice  products,  81,328,617  of  cement,  and 
$1,051,234  of  tobacco.  So  that  of*  our  trade  with  Germany  we, 
last  year,  bought  $17,925, 188  worth  of  stuff  it  would  have  been 
better  to  have  gone  without,  and  and  by  purchasing  so  heavy 
wo  had  to  send  our  cold  cash  out  to  pay  for  it. 

If  by  a  tariff  on  beet  sugar  we  would  wipe  out  the  adverse 
balance  of  trade  of  botli  Germany  and  Austria  it  should  be 
passed  at  once.  I  would  propose  a  duty  of  about  5  cent  per 
pound,  and  let  the  German  and  Hungarian  eat  his  own  beet 
sugar.  We  certainly  don't  need  it  bad  enough  to  pay  cash  for 
it  when  we  can  possibly  work  up  a  trade  with  some  other 
country. 

The  next  country  that  we  owed  a  l^alance  of  trade  to  was 
Greece.  I  find  that  we  bought  $1,172,159  worth  of  currants. 
1  suppose  we  want  them,  but  it  is  a  luxury  easily  gone  without. 
Italy  is  the  next  country  that  we  owed  a  balance  of  $5,631,283. 
I  find  that  we  bought  of  Italy  8490,541  of  rags  and  paper  stock, 
8451,328  of  n-on  ore,  $75,384  of  salt;  $297,005  of  beans  and  peas, 
$487,108  of  wood  manufactures,  and  $1,668,000  worth  of  oranges. 
Or  a  total  of  83,469,366  of  articles  we  could  well  get  along  with- 
out. We  also  bought  $4,111,327  worth  of  lemons  and  82,140,516 
worth  of  sulphur,  but  it  appears  that  Italy  furnishes  us  nearly 
all  of  these  two  articles  that  we  import,  so  they  are  omitted 
from  my  list. 

The  little  country  of  Switzerland  "hits  us  hard"  in  a 
financial  way,  as  we  owed  her  $14,069,488,  wliich  we  paid  for  in 
exchange.  Of  this  amount  $9,265,700  was  for  laces  and  silks, 
$1,704,007  for  clocks  and  watches,  and  $775,946  for  cheese. 
Our  people  would  not  suffer  if  we  stopped  our  whole  trade 
with  Switzerland,  but  as  she  is  a  sister  republic,  and  even  if 
kindly  disposed  could  not  buy  enough  from  us  as  amount 
to  anything,  a  regulation  against  Switzerland  should  be  only 
a  dernier  resort. 

The  only  other  European  country  to  which  we  owed  a 
balance  last  year  was  Turkey  in  Europe,  the  largest  items  of 
which  were  carpets,  8462,033,  opium,  $433,487.     I   suppose  we 


BALANXES  OF  TRADE.  65 

must  have  them.  Russia  on  the  Black  Sea  sent  us  81,247,662 
worth  of  poor  wool,  and  we  owed  that  province  a  balance.  Hut 
Russia  as  a  whole,  is  a  good  customer,  and  while  I  think  we 
ought  not  to  allow  the  wool  to  be  brought  here,  it  is  of  little 
consequence. 

I  find  that  of  the  8459,305,372  of  imports  from  Europe  that 
over  one-quarter  is  for  dress  goods,  say  $37,000,000  ;  silks  and 
laces,  §33,000,000;  wines,S9,7oo,ooo;  wool.Si  2,628.131 ;  beet  sugar, 
§18,232,277,  and  on  these  articles  a  tariff  could  be  placed  at  any 
time  we  found  we  were  losing  coin.  For  my  life  I  do  not  see 
why  we  should  pay  §30,000,000  for  wool  and  beet  sugar  to-day, 
when  on  investigation  we  find  that  we  pay  cash  for  it  instead 
of  working  it  out  in  trade.  It  is  not  the  way  business  men 
work  their  own  business.  While  we  can  afford  it  it  is  well 
enough  to  buy  the  wines  and  silks,  etc.,  but  we  are  working 
•  agamst  our  own  interest  to  buy  beet  sugar  and  wool  of 
countries  that  antagonize  our  monetary  system,  and  also  to  buy 
nearly  §5,000,000  of  rags  and  paper  stock  from  the  slums  of 
creation,  and  import  a  possible  plague  with  every  cargo. 
With  a  tariff  properly  regulated,  there  are  plenty  of  things  we 
can  cut  off  without  injury,  and  prevent  a  flow  of  gold  or  silver 
out  of  the  United  States.  Willi  .-i  business  administration, 
instead  of  a  lawyers'  and  politicians',  these  things  could  be 
hanrlled  so  that  in  ten  >ears' time  we  would  h.ive  the  great 
bulk  of  money  in  the  world  in  our  vaults.  Now  is  our  oppor- 
tunity and  we  should  not  wait. 

IJAI.ANfKS    WITH    sol    111    A.MKKICA. 

The  countries  in  South  America,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  table 
given,  are  those  to  which  we  pay  the  greatest  amount  <<( 
monev. 


66 


RALANCES  OF  TRADE. 


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BALAN'CES  OF  TRADE.  67 

The  first  on  the  list  is  the  Argentine  Republic,  to  which  we 
owed  83,157,419.  Of  this  amount,  §1,378,116  was  paid  for  wool 
that  we  ought  not  to  have  allowed  to  come  into  the  country  at 
all.  The  other  large  items  are  for  hides  and  skins,  which  of 
course  we  want,  and  must  expect  to  pay  for.  We  can  raise 
our  own  wool  if  we  would  keep  out  this  wool  that  we  bring  in 
from  Europe,  China,  Asia  and  South  America — usually 
bought  of  people  who  do  not  buy  largely  of  us,  and  who  are 
not  in  sympathy  with  us  politically  or  otherwise. 

Our  trade  with  Columbia  makes  the  best  kind  of  a  showing, 
as  we  only  buy  things  that  we  need  from  that  country,  and 
charge  duty  on  but  §17,668  worth  of  goods  purchased  there. 
She  sends  her  bullion  to  us  to  handle  for  her,  and  our  trade  is 
growing  rapidly. 

British  (iuiana  is  situated  so  that  our  market  for  manufac- 
tures is  restricted  through  England's  competition;  but  as  our 
principal  purchase  was  sugar,  which  amounts  to  within 
Si.ooo.ooo  of  the  full  amount  of  importations,  we  can  stand  it. 

Our  trade  with  Uraguay  was  principally  in  hides  and  no 
doubt  but  what  they  were  needed. 

Venezula  was  a  large  creditor  of  ours,  taking  ?7, 293, 585 
from  us,  of  which  we  sent  to  her  Si,<;84,885  in  silver  and  gold, 
and  undoubtedly  remitted  drafts  on  Londwn  to  balance.  As 
we  paid  for  coffee  alone  §10,814,874,  it  is  hardly  woiili  wliili'  to 
account  for  the  balance. 

Brazil  appears  l<j  have  the  upper  hand  of  us  in  trailc,  more 
than  any  country  on  the  globe.  Some  way  she  has  what  we 
want  most,  as  on  that  vast  sum  of  §83,000,000  purrha.sed  of  hej- 
we  only  charged  duty  on  §2,343,151  worth  of  gfifxis  that  we 
imported  from  that  country.  We  benight  §62,022,022  worth  of 
coffee,  §12,304,233  worth  of  India  rubber,  §5.1 41. lorj  worth  of 
sugar,  §502,547  worth  of  cocoa,  which,  with  our  iisii;il  dove  of 
hides  and  wool,  romj>lctes  the  bill. 

Our  relations  with  South  Amirira  are  in  a  j)cruliar  position. 
We  have   practically  removed   the  t.iriff  from  all  of  tlicir  juo 
ducts,  etc.,  and  we  pay  them  a  heavier  balance  than  any  olhor 
countries  in  the  world. 

They  do  not  want  our  brcadstuffs,  and  our  manufacturers 
have  not  secured  their  trade.  It  is  a  demonstration  that  free 
trade  alone  does  not  bring  hap|>iness  and  plenty  unless  some- 
thing else  accompanies  it 


68  15A1.A\CES  CF  TRADE, 


We  pay  South  America  §85,000,000,  and  if  every  country 
drew  on  us  in  this  way,  the  gold,  and  silver,  and  all  kinds  of 
money,  would  fly  to  other  shores,  as  the  "Gresham  Law"  claims 
it  would. 

What  should  be  done  by  this  country,  is  to  subsidize  a  line 
of  steamers  to  South  America,  and  our  merchants  should 
establish  agencies  and  work  those  markets  for  all  there  is 
in  them.  It  cannot  be  done  by  "tramp"  steamers;  there  must 
be  regular  fast  line  steamers,  that  would  make  time,  so  as  to 
bring  New  York  closer  than  London  to  that  country.  The 
Yankee  can  work  his  way  if  he  has  a  chance,  but  the  Govern- 
ment should  start  the  venture  by  assuring  a  certain  revenue, 
so  the  steamer  could,  if  necessary,  cut  the  rates  and  force  the 
trade  our  way.  As  it  is,  nearly  all  these  South  American  States 
and  countries  are  heavily  in  debt  to  England,  who  is  paid  by 
us,  instead  of  our  sending  the  money  to  them  direct.  In  other 
words,  they  send  us  goods  and  we  pay  England  for  her  manu- 
factures, that  she  has  sent  to  them. 

In  fact,  for  the  very  purpose  of  preventing  our  trade  in  tliis 
direction,  a  line  of  freigiit  steamers  subsidized  by  England 
and  Belgium,  make  what  is  called  triangle  voyages.  The  Liv- 
erpool, Brazil  &  River  Platte  Navigation  Company  have  a  line 
of  steamers  that  make  the  trip  from  Antwerp  and  Liverpool 
to  Brazil,  thence  to  New  York,  and  thence  back  to  London, 
and  that  line  is  instructed  to  attempt  to  destroy  any  American 
line  that  is  started,  by  taking  freight  from  Brazil  to  New  York, 
if  necessary,  at  a  loss. 

It  is  done  to  prevent  our  merchants  getting  a  foothold  with 
their  manufactures  in  that  country,  and  to  "bluff  off"  any  at- 
tempt we  should  make  to  get  control  of  that  trade.  It  has 
worked  so  well  that  while  we,  at  the  present  time,  buy  more 
from  Brazil  than  all  other  nations  combined,  they  buy  of  Eng- 
land three  times  as  much  as  they  do  of  us.  While  we  do  not 
impose  a  duty  on  any  of  their  goods,  they  charge  a  duty  on 
their  coffee  and  rubber  exports  to  us,  and  on  nearly  everything 
we  send  to  them. 

If  the  United  States  would  start  a  weekly  line  of  steamers 
to  Brazil,  equipped  as  elegantly  as  our  Transatlantic  steamers, 
swift,  powerful  and  complete,  started  out  with  a  backing  by 
the  Government  that  would  give  notice  to  the  world  that  those 
steamers  would  run  if  they  run  only  in  ballast.      Then  our 


BALANXES  OF  TRADE.  69 

merchants  could  get  sale  for  our  manufactures  in  that  coun- 
try, and  instead  of  our  paying  big  bahmces  to  Europe  for 
them,  we  would  pay  Brazil  and  the  Argentine  Republic  in 
goods  for  their  coffee,  etc.  h  wouUl  be  better  that  the  Gov- 
ernment should  carry  the  goods  "D.-M."  for  five  years,  than  to 
allow  this  condition  of  things  to  continue. 

If  we  had  free  coi-nage  of  silver.  South  America  would  rec- 
ognize our  dollar  as  good,  and  we  could  pay  these  countries  in 
silver,  and  lay  a  foundation  for  trade  on  closer  relations  l)eing 
established. 

With  swift  lines  of  steamers  and  close  business  relations, 
this  system  of  exchanges  passing  through  London  would  stop. 

It  may  be  news  to  some  people  in  this  country,  but  the  let- 
ters from  the  United  States  officers  at  the  naval  stations  in 
South  America  are  sent  to  the  Inited  States  via  London.  How 
can  we  expect  anything  else  in  the  way  of  exchange?  The 
South  American  would  be  glad  to  have  closer  relations  with 
our  country,  and  would  be  glad  to  adopt  any  monetary  system 
that  would  suit  us,  and  as  we  owe  them  money,  it  wouiil  l)e 
better  for  us  to  consult  with  them  in  this  money  conlerence, 
than  to  call  in  England,  or  Portugal,  or  Italy. 

Without  some  kind  of  close  relation,  as  I  have  suggested, 
we  will  have  to  continue  to  remit  to  London  for  purchases  wc 
make  in  South  America,  because  it  is  the  quickest  route. 

In  all  the  talk  against  silver  we  never  hear  that  lirazil,  the 
country  that  we  pay  the  most  money  to  of  all  the  nations  in  the 
world,  is  objecting  to  it,  and  in  fact  she  is  never  mentioned  by 
the  howlers  for  gf)Id  money.  In  all  this  discussion  it  is 
remarkable  that  the  only  talk  of  a  conference  is  to  l)e  with 
nations  that  pay  us  money,  instead  of  those  that  we  pay  money 
to.  It  ai)pears  that  if  wc  were  trying  to  make  a  dishonest 
dollar  our  creditors  would  be  the  ones  to  consult.  The  fact  is 
that  not  a  nation  in  .South  America  would  refuse  our  money 
if  we  would  declare  for  free  coinage  of  silver. 

BALANCES   WITH    r  I'HA. 

From  June  30,  l8c/3,  to  June  30,  uS^l,  wc  imported  from 
Cuba  $61,714,395  worth  of  articles.  We  exported  l)iit 
isI2,224,8H8  worth  of  goruU,  owing  that  country  ;>49,4.S(;,5o7  as  a 
balance  on  merchandise  account,  and  in  addition  Cuba  sent  us 
Si, 216,682  worth  of  bullion,  so   that  we  owed   her  §50,706,189. 


70  13ALANCKS  OF    TRADE. 

Cuba  is  a  dependency  of  Spain,  and  until  very  lately  (Septem- 
ber 1st.  i8qi),  that  country  had  imposed  a  heavy  duty  on  all 
articles  that  the  I'nited  States  sent  to  Cuba,  and  assisted  in 
every  way  to  keep  out  our  j^oods  liy  heavy  tariff  impositions. 

Our  purchases  from  Cuba  that  amounted  to  anything  were 
sugar  and  molasses,  $47,000,000,  and  tobacco,  $10,484,604.  The 
sugar  was  needed  and  the  tobacco  was  a  luxury.  While  times 
are  good  let  the  tobacco  come;  but  if  llie  balance  of  trade 
would  go  against  us,  as  1  do  not  smoke,  1  would  be  in  favor  of 
cutting  it  off  by  a  prohibitory  tariff,  declaring  there  is 
nicotine  in  it,  that  it  is  unhealthy,  on  the  same  principle  that 
the  French  had  found  that  ourjiork  was  diseased. 

General  Grant's  idea  of  the  United  States  taking  possession 
of  Cuba  was  a  good  one.  We  have  paid  for  the  island  over 
and  over  since  that  time  (since  1876  we  have  paid  Cuba  §732, 191,- 
917  balance  of  trade),  and  until  last  September  their  statesmen 
and  government  treated  the  United  States  in  not  only  an 
insolent  manner,  but  tliey  bled  our  merchants  and  commerce 
in  every  way  possible. 

The  treaty  negotiated  by  Mr.  Blaine,  under  the  reciprocity 
clause  of  the  McKinley  bill,  was  the  first  concession  we  have 
received  from  that  province.  If  Cuba  belonged  to  this  coun- 
try of  course  her  finances  would  be  the  same  as  ours,  and  no 
bad  results  would  be  noticed  in  case  we  made  heavy  payments 
to  her,  and  as  it  is,  she  belongs  to  Spain,  but  Spain  is  not  a 
mono-metal  country,  and  would  be  glad  to  follow  the  United 
States  in  any  such  move  that  we  would  choose  to  make.  The 
silver  dollar  of  the  U'nitcd  States  would  be  taken  by  Spain  and 
Cuba,  if  it  were  guaranteed  by  this  Government;  so  there  is  no 
danger  from  this  source,  in  case  we  declared  for  silver  coinage. 
If  the  Cubans  did  not  take  our  coin  we  could  ask  them  what 
they  were  going  to  do  about  it.  They  have  no  other  market  . 
for  their  sugar.  They  could  choose  to  take  cither  such  coin 
as  we  declare  to  lie  moneys  or  goods  of  equal  amount;  we 
would  be  just  as  pleased  one  way  as  the  other. 

I  notice  that  we  imported  from  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico 
$1,651,054  of  iron  ore.  As  the  balance  of  trade  stands  with  that 
country  it  should  be  stopped  by  a  higher  tariff  on  ore. 

BALANCES  WITH    MEXICO. 

We  bought  of  Mexico  $27,295,992  worth  of  products,  and 


BALAN'CES  OF  TRADE.  71 

sold  them  §14,969,625  worth  of  goods  in  return,  showing  a  bal- 
ance against  us  of  812,324,367.  Let  us  see  what  we  bought  of 
Mexico.  In  ores  we  purchased  S2 14,803  worth  of  gold,  $8,953,- 
608  worth  of  silver,  and  Si, 847,696  worth  of  lead;  inall.Sii,- 
016,107  worth  of  products  of  nietalifcrous  mines,  which  nearly 
amounts  to  the  balance  we  owed  that  country.  In  addition  to 
this,  our  other  two  big  items  were  coffee,  §5,094,839,  and 
fibrous  grasses,  85,754.552.  The  amount  of  sisal  grass  is  a 
surprise  to  me,  and  in  case  of  any  misuntlerstanding,  it  could 
be  cut  off  by  a  tariff  to  check  a  balance  against  us,  but  I  think 
the  condition  of  trade  with  Mexico  is  improving,  and  instead 
of  being  a  bad  thing,  it  is  benefiting  us,  especially  if  wc  should 
declare  for  free  coinage. 

In  addition  to  this  large  amount  of  precious  metal  that  she 
shipped  to  us  in  her  ores,  she  sent  us  §1,257,350  in  gold,  and 
Si3,o40,,o8i  in  silver  bullion,  so  that  we  received  from  Mexico, 
in  ores  and  bullion,  $23,461,842  worth  of  precious  metals.  As 
Mexico's  production  is  but  §40,000,000,  it  will  I)e  noticed  thai 
we  got  60  per  cent,  of  all  she  produced.  It  only  shows  that 
we  already  contn;!  her  precious  metal,  as  well  as  our  own,  .uul 
that  if  we  would  declare  for  free  coinage  of  silver,  it  would  re- 
sult in  that  country  adopting  our  standard  coin  as  her  own. 
because  our  interest  being  in  common  she  would  do  what  every 
nation  in  her  position  has  done  for  rcnturies,  viz.,  adopt  the 
standard  that  the  most  powerful  nation  declares  right. 

Last  year  the  United  States  did  not  send  but  §167,335  J^"'*' 
to  Mexico  and  the  Central  American  States  and  British 
Honduras,  so  the  silver  of  Mexico  was  not  sent  here  lo  tradr 
for  gold.  .She  sent  her  gold  here,  as  well  as  her  sil\  cr,  just  ,i> 
Columbia  had  done. 

if  the  I'nited  States  would  il(.(  hire  lor  free  coinage  of 
silver,  I  firmly  believe  that  the  silver  dollar  would  bcrccogni/cd 
as  the  standard  of  v.due  all  over  both  of  the  .American 
continents. 

There  is  not  a  country  that  wc  owe  large  balances  to  but 
what  is  in  favor  of  silver  money,  and  there  is  no  use  for  us  to 
call  a  conference  of  European  nations  to  ado|)t  measures  for 
increased  use  of  silver,  because  if  we  do  it  ourselves  it  will  be 
recognized  by  those  wc  pay  money  tr>,  and  why  should  we  con- 
sult those  that  have  to  pay  us  money?  We  already  control 
the   silver  product  of  the  world;  it  is  our  place  to  proclaim   its 


72  BALANCES  OF  TRADE. 

value.  It  will  cement  to  us  the  good  will  and  trade  of  those 
growing  countries  on  the  Western  Hemisphere,  and  they  would 
look  to  us  as  their  sponsors  in  finance.  Unless  we  assert 
ourselves  no  one  will  respect  us  as  a  nation. 

The  balance  of  trade  for  the  past  few  years  has  been 
apparently  increasing  against  us  with  Mexico,  but  as  its 
growth  is  principally  made  up  by  precious  metals  that  are  sent 
to  us,  if  we  should  have  free  coinage  it  would  only  bring  more 
money  into  the  country. 

This  is  the  first  century  that  has  developed  men  who  con- 
sider themselves  statesmen  and  think  it  possible  for  their 
country  to  be  too  rich,  or  to  have  too  much  coin  in  circulation 
among  its  people.  Do  they  know  better  than  the  financiers  of 
the  past  two  thousand  years? 


BALANCES  OF  TRADE. 


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74  BALANCES  OF  TRADE. 

The  only  country  in  this  list  that  appears  to  have  a  balance 
that  amounts  to  anything  is  the  British  West  Indies.  We 
purchased  $2,305,622  worth  of  bananas,  and  $8,130,936  worth  of 
sugar,  but  they  buy  liberally  of  us,  and  it  is  a  good  trade  to  fos- 
ter. The  trade  with  these  countries  is  increasing,  and  it  will  be 
noticed  that  they  all  send  their  bullion  to  us,  except  Hayti,  to 
which  country  we  sent  $i  ,35 1 ,869  in  gold,  that  was  purchased  out- 
right by  that  country,  as  we  did  not  owe  her  any  money  on  trade, 
Hayti  had  a  little  war  of  her  own,  and  had  to  buy  enough 
gold  of  us  to  purchase  some  old  second-hand  guns  m  Europe, 
and  that  was  all  that  that  movement  amounted  to. 

With  the  United  States  declaring  for  free  coinage  of  silver, 
the  dollar  of  the  United  States  would  pass  current  in  these 
countries  as  freely  as  in  our  own. 


BALANCES  OF  TRADE. 


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76  BALANCES  OF  TRADE. 

This  is  another  section  of  the  world  that  the  United  States 
annually  owes  a  balance.     Last  year  it  amounted  to  $53,717,969. 

Let  us  first  take  the  trade  of  China.  We  purchased 
$7,587,274  worth  of  tea,  $4,352,574  of  raw  silk  and  cocoons, 
$804,209  of  rice,  $658,765  of  silk  goods,  and  $1,045,114  worth  of 
wool.  The  latter  article  is  about  all  that  we  did  not  really 
need.  It  looks  as  though  there  was  a  balance  of  trade  against 
us  of  $10,620,842,  but  when  you  take  it  in  conjunction  with 
Hong  Kong,  which  has  a  balance  in  our  favor  of  $4,205,422,  it 
reduces  that  amount,  so  that  the  $4,609,076  of  silver  that  we 
shipped  about  squared  our  accounts  in  that  section. 

With  Japan  we  were  not  so  fortunate.  We  bought 
§9,185,286  worth  of  raw  silk,  etc.,  and  $5,533,335  worth  of  tea, 
and  S140876  worth  of  rags,  and  with  other  things  run  up  a 
balance  amounting  to  $i4,!;oi,5o5,  on  which  wc  paid  $918,686 
in  silver,  and  settled  with  the  London  bankers  for  the  rest. 

Hawaii  "touched"  us  for  $8,788,385  on  which  we  paid  $912,- 
750  coin,  and  either  credited  their  account  or  possibly  paid 
some  debt  of  that  dusky  kingdom's  that  was  pressing  for  the 
balance.  We  ought  to  have  that  island  as  a  coaling  station 
anyway. 

Our  heaviest  debt  in  that  direction  was  to  British  East 
India.  1  find  that  $4,291,851  was  paid  for  tin,  $1,472,467  for 
flax-seed,  $2,566,791  for  jute  butts,  and  $2,578,637  for  jute  and 
bags — the  above  amounting  in  all  to  $10,908,746 — and  as  I  hope 
the  McKinley  bill  will  stop  the  tin,  and  that  a  tariff  should  be 
placed  on  flax  and  jute  so  high  as  to  stop  that  importation  as 
well,  this  balance'  could  be  easily  regulated,  and  is  the  only 
balance  we  owe  to  that  section  of  the  world  that  would  possibly 
be  questioned  if  paid  in  silver  coin.  A  suggestion  that  if  our 
coin  was  questioned,  that  we  would  not  buy  their  goods,  would 
settle  all  their  scruples  in  regard  to  silver  in  one  day. 

While  the  Phillipinc  Islands  do  not  buy  anything  of  us,  to 
mention,  our  purchase  of  them  of  $2,789,1 13  worth  of  manilla 
was  nearly  all  of  that  article  we  imported,  so  they  must  have  a 
practical  "comer"  on  manilla,  and  we  must  stand  it  or  go  with- 
out. In  our  trade  with  Australia  wc  scored  a  balance  against 
them  of  $6,778,111.  They  sent  us  $5,863,667  in  gold,  and  the 
little  balance  in  silver  to  pay  their  bill. 

This  drain  of  gold  came  on  them  unexpectedly,  as  they  had 
depended  on  giving  drafts  on  London  to  settle  their  balance, 


BALANCES  OF  TRADE. 


77 


and  when  London  failed  them,  and  they  remitted  the  gold  to 
San  Francisco,  it  created  a  panic  in  Australia  that  unsettled 
their  finances  for  several  months. 

Notice  particularly  that  we  paid  what  we  had  to  pay  these 
countries  in  silver,  while  they  paid  us  in  gold.  Does  that  look 
as  though  a  silver  flood  was  coming  from  the  far  East?  It  was 
just  the  contrary.  The  ratio  of  coinage  in  India  being  fifteen 
to  one,  and  in  China  less  than  that,  it  would  be  to  them  like 
paying  Si. 50  on  the  Si.oo  to  send  us  silver.  It  would  be  the 
same  as  paying  us  S1.38  for  S1.29,  if  we  had  free  coinage  of 

silver. 

China  and  Japan  don't  want  the  gold.  If  wc  had  remone- 
tized  silver,  as  wc  should  have  done,  or  if  we  do  remonetize 
silver,  our  dollar  will  be  above  jiar  in  China  and  Japan,  and 
eagerly  sought  after  by  those  people. 

P-ven  the  gold-bugs  do  not  predict  that  these  people  of  the 
far  East  would  let  their  silver  go  from  them,  no  matter  what 
action  our  country  would  take  on  the  subject. 

BALANCK.S    WITH     BHITISH     A.MERICA— THE     AMOUNT    OF    IM- 
PORTS  AND    EXl'fjRTS    AND   THE   BALANCE   OF   TRADE 
WITH     NOKTII     AMERICAN     COUNTRIES     FRO.M 
JUNE  30,  iSrp,  TO  JUNE  30,   189I,  WITH  THE 
BALANCES    I'AII)    IN    I'RECIOUS 
Ml.TALS   BY  VARIOUS 
COUNTRIES. 


COUNTRIES. 

Imports. 

Exports. 

Balance  for 
U.  S. 

Prince  Kdwarr)  Islands.  Nova  Sco- 
tia, New  liiunswitk 

Queljcc.  Oiitarii),  Manitoba  and 
N.    W.    iirrritory 

5  6,8oS,635       $  4.041. 571 

29,680,751               12.100.000 

ti    2,4I9,2^8 

2.;';«.39<J 
346.753 

1,906,191 
1.295.977 

New  Foundland  and  Labrador 

949.224 

Total                         

539.434.533 

>  39.34.^74S 

«  3.368.4«2 

COUNTRIKS. 

Balance              Coin 
Against  U.S.j     Shipped. 

Coin 
Received. 

Prince  Edward  Islands,  Nova  Sco- 
tia, New  Hrunswick 

Quebec.  ( tntarin.  Manitoba  and 
N.  W.  Trrrilory 

t   2,767,064     1 

•• \t         4.655 

692,205           

1        

British  C*r .111  11)1  >i.i    

$      264,915 

New  Foundland  and   Labrador  — 

Total 

»  3.459.269 

$        4.655 

1      264,915 

78 


BALANCES  OF  TRADE. 


There  is  hardly  enough  difference  in  our  trade  with  these 
countries  to  mention,  and  it  is  so  near  a  balance  that  it  would 
not  effect  us  in  any  event.  However,  in  case  of  free  coinage 
of  silver  and  these  provinces  would  refuse  to  recognize  our 
coin,  there  is  hardly  a  thing  that  we  buy  of  them  except  fish 
from  the  St.  Lawrence  Provinces  but  what  we  could  do 
without.  If  they  would  discredit  our  currency  we  would  close 
our  ports  to  their  lumber,  salt  and  coal,  and  there  is  not  a 
business  man  but  what  knows  that  this  action  would  ruin  the 
whole  of  the  great  Central  British  Provinces,  and  they  would 
be  only  too  glad  to  recognize  our  coin  and  continue  their 
trade. 

BALAN'CE     WITH     AFRICA — THE     AMOUNT     OF     IMPORTS     AND 

EXPORTS  AND   THE   BALANCE   OF   TRADE   WITH   AFRICA 

FROM   JUNE   30,    1890,   TO   JUNE    30,    189I,    WITH     THE 

BALANCES     PAID     IN     PRECIOUS     METALS 

BY     VARIOUS     COUNTRIES. 


COUNTRIES. 

t-, 
0 

a 

I— , 

0 

a 

X 

Balance 
for  U.  S. 

Balance 

against 

U.S. 

u 

> 

._  u 
0  <u 

ucb: 

French  Possessions 

2  390,953 

959-401 

713 

39,^37 

1,595,867 

13,512 

1,207,163 

S  609,919 
3,'4i.799 

22,;01 

180,486 

200,776 

;;.if)6 

547.255 

$  218,966 

2,182,308 

21.788 

140,949 

41,654 

1.395,091 
659,908 

Britisli  Possessions 

S5,677 

Portuguese  Possessions 

Spanish  Possessions 

'1  urkish  Possessions  

I-iberia 

Other  countries 

Total 

54,207,146 

$  4,757,902 

$  2,605,755 

$  2,054,999 

$5,677 

I  merely  present  this  statement  to  fill  out  the  list  of  coun- 
tries, and  itemize  our  trade  with  the  world,  and  allow  parties 
who  wish,  to  check  over  this  argument. 

In  the  next  chapter  I  will  analyze  the  movement  of  the 
precious  metals,  and  explain  why  the  apparant  flow  is  at  times 
against  the  tide  of  trade.  It  is  easily  accounted  for,  and  it 
will  be  made  plain  that  the  only  use  of  precious  metal,  as  be- 
tween countries,  is  to  pay  debts  and  that  if  we  owe  no  debt 
the  metal  will  stay  with  us,  free  coinage  or  not. 


CHAPTER   X. 


MOVEMENT    OF    PRE 
CIOUS  METAL. 


I  again  have  recourse  to  the  report  of  the  Treasury  De- 
partment. 

IMPORTS   OF    GOLD   AND    SILVER. 

The  following  table  shows  the  imports  of  gold  and  silver 
coin  and  bullion  during  the  year  ending  June  30,  1891 : 


Countries  and  Customs  Districts. 


Gold. 


Silver. 


Total 

Gold  and 

Silver 


Per 

cent. 


COUNTRIES  FROM  WHICH  IM- 
PORTED. 

England 

France 

Germany 

Other  countries  in  Europe 

British  North  Amer.  Possessions. 

Mexico 

('entrai   Amer.  States  and  British 

Honduras 

West  Indies 

Colombia 

Other  countries  in  South  America 

British  Austral.isia 

Other  coimtrics  in  Asia  and  Oce- 

anlca 

Other  countries 

Total 

CUSTOMS  DISTRICTS  INTO  WHICH 
IMPORTED. 

New  York.  N.  Y 

San  Francisco,  Cal 

Paso  (If!  .Norte,  Tex.,  and  N.  M... 

Arizfina,  Ariz 

New  ( )ricans.  La 

Corpus  Christi.  Tex 

Saluria,  Tex 

Brazos  de  Santiago,  Tex 

All  other 

Total 


2,593.896 
472,8^0 

2,7^«,Si2 

45.«2I 

401,660 

1.2:7.3^0 

2i';.97o 
3.762.244 

«26.S27 

1H.342 

5.853.667 

20,:7i 
5.677 


$  18,232,567 


$  10,699,425 

6,^58.074 

64^,04= 

390.135 

37.297 

41.660 


6o,93« 


$  18,232,567 


$      398.304 


845,901 

6,629 

6,o6'? 

13,040,081 

t<9i,i96 

849.397 

i,9i6,S^6 

J.735 
15,207 

54.412 


(  18,026,880 


*    4 

.3. 

7. 
I, 


703,280 
634.455 
070.735 
144.793 
47^,988 
.360,384 
390,163 

2i<;,732 
31. .350 


$  18,026,880 


2,992,200 

472,8^0 

3.604.713 

52,450 

407,722 

14,297.431 

1,107,166 
4,61 1,641 

2,743,663 

20,077 

5.868,874 

74.983 
5.677 


»  36.259.447 


Is,  402, 

9.'»2. 

7.7 

1.534. 
51.1 
402, 
.390, 
215. 
92. 


70 

529 

7S0 
92X 
285 
044 
163 
732 


I: 


$  36.259.447 


8.25. 

1.30 

9.95 

■5 

1. 12 

305 
12.72 

7-57 

1 6!  18 

.21 

.02 


100.00 


42.48 
27.56 
21.28 

423 
1.42 
I. II 

1.07 

■  59 
.26 


100.00 


8o 


.M()\  EMENT  OF  PKi:CIOUS  METAL. 


EXPORTS   OF    GOLD   AND   SILVER. 

The  following  table  shows  the  exports  of  domestic  and 
foreign  gold  and  silver  coin  and  bullion  during  the  year  ending 
June  30,  1891 : 


Countries  and  Customs  Districts. 


Gold. 


Silver. 


Total  gold 
and  silver. 


Per 

cent. 
iSgi. 


COUNTRIES  TO  WHICH  EXPORTEfJ 

England j    $48,210,578 

16,530,377 
14,659,015 


Germany 

France 

British  North  American  Pos- 
sessions  

Mexico,  and  Central  American 
States,  and  British  Honduras.. 

West  Indies 

South  America 

Asia  and  Occanica 

Total 


CUSTOMS  DISTRICTS  FROM 
WHICH   EXPORTED. 

New  York,  N.  Y 

San  Francisco,  Cal 

Boston  and  Charlestown,  Mass. 

Puget  Sound,  Wash 

Corpus  Christi,  Tex 

Other  customs  districts 


Total 


1,200 

167.335 
3,091.824 
2.161,153 
1,541.172 


$86,362,654 


$15,066,710 

910 

399.684 

146,262 

468,386 

324,406 

623,581 

5,561,049 


$83,451,686 
1,646,1181 
1,250,000 


14.850 


S6-?,277,288  58. oS 
16,531.287  15.17 
15,058,61)9:  13.82 


147,462 

635.721 
3,416,230 

2.784.734 
7,102,221 


$22,590,988  $108,953,642 


$16,723,390 
5.609,371 


1.37.515 
64,14=, 
56,567 


$86,362,6541   $22,590,988 


$  100,175,076 
7.255.489 
1,250,000 

1.37.515 
64,14=; 

71,417 


$  108,953,642 


.14 

.58 
3-14 

6.52 


100.00 


91.34 

6.66 

1. 15 

.13 

.06 

.06 

100.00 


The  flow  of  gold  to  England  last  year  was  phenomenal  but 
is  easily  explained.  Speculation  in  the  Argentine  Republic 
by  Englishmen,  had  grown  tremendously,  until  in  1890  the 
crash  came  that  carried  down  some  of  the  greatest  houses  in 
England.  As  had  always  been  the  custom  of  the  Bank  of 
England  in  times  of  such  emergencies,  it  cru.shed  out  the 
borrower  to  save  itself.  As  it  was  it  was  a  close  call  to  that 
bank,  but  by  hurriedly  rushing  815,000,000  worth  of  gold  from 
F" ranee  the  controllers  of  the  Bank  of  England  saved  a  panic. 
This  was  only  a  temporary  loan.  One  of  the  largest  borrowers 
in  England  was  the  great  firm  of  Baring  Bros.  They  were  the 
financial  agents  of  the  Atchison,  Topeka  &  Santa  Fe  R.  R.  in 
London.  They  and  their  customers  were  heavily  loaded  up 
with  American  securities. 

The  Bank  of  England  and  a  committee  of  financiers  took 
hold  of  their  affairs,  to  save  a  panic,   and   their  move  was 


MOVEMENT  OF  PRECIOUS  METAL.  8i 


bold,  and  answered  the  purposes,  but   it  was   death   to   the 
Barings  and  their  friends. 

The  stock  of  the  Atchison  road  is  a  good  example  of  the 
sacrifice  English  investors  made  to  get  that  $48,000,000  in 
gold.  Before  the  crash  that  stock  was  selling  at  §45  per  share, 
but  the  Bank  of  England  had  to  get  the  gold  to  pay  back  to 
France,  and  also  enough  to  keep  its  reserve  intact,  and 
prevent  a  financial  crash.  They  refused  loans  on  a  great  many 
.American  securities,  took  the  stock  of  the  Atchison  road, 
threw  it  on  the  American  market,  and  selling  it  down  to  S25 
per  share,  and  in  addition  absolutely  paying  a  premium  on  the 
gold  when  shipped,  over  and  above  exchange  price.  (Unless 
foreign  exchange  goes  above  4.88%,  bullion  cannot  be  shipped 
at  a  profit,  and  it  takes  4-89'/4'  to  make  it  profitable  to  ship 
coin).  But  the  loss  they  made  in  shipping  coin  and  bullion 
instead  of  balancing  accounts  with  bills  of  exchange,  was  as 
nothing  to  the  loss  they  made  in  selling  stocks  and  bonds, 
right  and  left,  to  secure  the  gold. 

As  soon  as  they  got  through  throwing  over  securities  in  this 
mad  endeavor  to  save  themselves  at  the  expense  of  the 
borrowers  of  England,  Atchison  stock  went  back  to  S43  per 
share.  It  is  a  safe  calculation  to  say  that  they  in  reality  i)aid 
$1.10  for  each  dollar's  worth  of  gold  they  took  from  us  at  that 
lime.  Is  this  the  kind  of  finance  we  want  in  this  country?  If 
it  is,  I  can  plainly  see  the  day  not  far  distant  when  if  this 
country  would  need  the  gold,  we  would  be  forced  to  throw 
over  our  wheat  at  50  cents  per  bushel  and  our  cotton  at  2  cent^ 
per  pound,  to  tide  over  an  emergency. 

England  had  to  have  that  gold,  and  the  Hank  of  I'.nglaiul 
slaughtered  its  customers  to  obtain  it.  They  saved  the  bank 
but  it  cost  their  customers  nearly  as  much  loss  as  there  were 
dollars  taken  from  this  country.  And  then  it  was  only 
temporary,  because  from  June  30th,  1891.  to  February  ist,  i8(;2, 
they  have  returned  us  $33.343,21 7  of  that  gold  to  pay  for  our 
goods.  Wh.it  tloundering  in  finance.  Wliat  an  example  to 
follow! 

The  movement  of  gold  to  France  and  (iermany  antl  ill  llie 
other  countries  is  easily  explained.  We  owed  France 
$15,000,000.  which  we  paid.  Wc  owed  Germany  $4,500,000, 
and  Austria  Sro.ooo.ooo,  and  paid  them  in  gold.  We  owed 
Asia  a  big  balance  and   we  paid  it    in    silver,  .ind    wc   allowed 


82  MOVEMENT  OF  PRECIOUS  METAL. 

England  to  swindle  us  out  of  $15,000,000  worth  of  silver, 
throui^h  their  foolish  agents  in  Washington  and  Wall  Street.who 
assist  in  depressing  the  price  of  silver. 

In  the  imports  it  will  be  noticed  that  every  country  pays  us 
gold  in  larger  amounts  than  silver,  except  Mexico,  Central 
America  and  Columbia. 

Since  June  30th,  i8gi,  to  the  present  time,  May  5th,  the  only 
remittances  of  gold  made  to  Europe  were  to  pay  Germany 
and  France  on  our  balances  of  trade.  We  have,  as  I  said 
before,  recovered  §33,343,217  of  gold  that  had  been  shipped 
early  in  1891,  and  a  great  portion  of  it  came  back  in  the  same 
bags  in  which  it  was  shipped  to  Europe,  unopened.  Through 
our  ridiculous  treatment  of  silver  we  have  sold  $7,344,991  in 
silver  in  the  same  time  more  than  we  received  from  Mexico 
and  other  countries,  thus  assisting,  as  I  have  shown  in  previous 
chapters,  to  destroy  our  own  trade. 

Can  it  be  possible  that  the  people  of  the  United  States  will 
be  fooled  much  longer,  by  this  system  of  juggling  in  finance 
that  is  destroying  our  commerce? 


CHAPTER   XI. 


TOURIST  TRAVEL  AND 
IMMIGRATION. 


In  the  reports  of  the  Director  of  the  Mint,  it  is  estimated  by 
him  that  we  have  about  $700,000,000  in  gold  in  this  country  at 
present,  and  my  figures  prove  it  to  a  certain  extent,  but  by  re- 
ferring to  that  chapter  it  will  be  observed  that  by  retaining  all 
of  our  production,  and  the  additional  $135,000,000  that  Europe 
has  sent  us  in  the  past  sixteen  years,  there  was  still  nearly 
$70,000,000  more  in  sight  in  this  country  than  what  we  had  pro- 
duced and  imported. 

In  addition  to  this  fact  we  arc  well  aware  that  the  arts 
yearly  consume  vast  amounts  of  gold,  and  counting  that  sum 
at  as  small  as  §10,000,000  per  year,  it  will  leave  over  $200,000,- 
000  more  than  our  imports  and  production  to  account  for.  It 
is  well  known  that  in  1876,  two  years  prior  to  the  resumption 
of  specie  payments,  there  was  but  a  small  amount  of  gold  in 
this  country,  and  that  [)rincipally  upon  the  Pacific  coast. 

Now  this  chafjter  is  only  written  to  show  the  fallacy  of  the 
assertion  that  our  tourist  travel  yearly  spends  our  balance  of 
trade,  or  nearly  so.     Let  us  get  again  into  the  Treasury  reports. 

Last  year  107,108  first-class  or  cabin  passengers  sailed 
from  this  country,  of  which  ^o,Ch)2  men,  26,732  women,  and 
7,791  children  went  to  Europe,  or  a  total  of  85,215  I'.umpean 
passengers.  There  were  125,955  steerage  passengers  also  who 
went  back  to  Eurofic,  but  the  fact  of  their  going  back  as  steerage 
eliminates  them  from  tourist  travel.  These  tourists  arc  usually 
wealthy,  and  go  abroad  to  have  a  good  time,  and  they  spend  a 
vast  amount  of  money  each  year,  but  ihcy  are  used  to  the 
ways  of  the  world  and  of  business,  and  they  take  hardly  more 
than  Sioo  in  gold  on  their  person;  the  Ijalancc  is  in  the  shape 


84  TOURIST  TRAVEL  AND  IMMIGRATION. 

of  a  letter  of  credit.  So  that  any  movement  of  s^old  in  pay- 
ment of  their  letter  of  credit,  naturally  passes  through  the  ex- 
changes, excepting  this  small  amount  carried  upon  their  per- 
son. Let  us  assume  that  the  85,215  men,  women  and  children 
that  went  to  Europe  last  year,  spent  $1,000  apiece,  which  is 
fair,  and  it  would  make  $85,215,000  thus  apparently  lost  to  this 
country;  and  as  our  balance  of  trade  last  year  was  only  S40,- 
000,000,  it  would  appear  to  disprove  the  figures  of  the  Treasury 
Department  and  of  my  own. 

In  book-keeping  and  business  methods,  it  is  customary  to 
have  two  sides  to  an  account,  however,  and  this  feature  of  our 
question  has  two  sides  as  well. 

Last  year  there  were  18,697  men,  women  and  children  who 
came  to  this  country  as  tourists,  and  to  be  fair  we  should  credit 
them  with  spending  as  mucli  with  us,  on  the  average,  as  we 
spend  abroad,  which  would  amount  to  $18,697,000,  which,  de- 
ducted from  the  former  amount,  leaves  $66,5 18,000  yet  to  be  ac- 
counted for  to  keep  our  balance  right.  It  is  very  easily  done, 
however,  when  you  go  into  the  immigration  statistics. 

Last  year  there  were  560,319  immigrants  come  to  this 
country,  and  24,707  come  as  first-class  passengers;  there  were 
3,431  professional  men,  10,500  merchants,  54,951  skilled  me- 
chanics, 36,398  farmers,  and  206,404  of  other  stated  occupations. 

This  vast  army  of  560,319  good,  bad  and  indifferent  come 
here  to  start  in  the  new  world,  and  while  Italy  furnished  72,704, 
and  Austria  71,042,  the  great  part  of  which  class  of  immigrants 
are  undesirable,  1  still  find  from  those  two  nations  20,759 
skilled  mechanics  and  farmers,  and  numerous  professional 
men.  The  113,554  Germans  and  42,145  Russians  and  121,863 
from  Great  Britian  are  desirable  acquisitions,  and  so  are  the 
Norwegians,  Danes,  etc.,  as  a  rule. 

The  little  farmer  in  Europe  has  sold  his  home  and  stock,  the 
business  man  his  store,  and  such  people  as  the  Menonites  and 
exiles  from  Russia  have  converted  their  all  into  cash,  and 
come  to  our  shores  to  start  anew.  Their  little  knowledge  of 
business  ways  or  the  fear  of  interference  from  authorities  that 
be,  deter  them  from  buying  exchange,  as  our  tourist  traveler 
would  do,  but  they  come  with  their  fortune  on  their  person  or 
in  their  baggage. 

We  know  that  the  Russians  come  to  us  wealthy,  because 
they  buy  whole  counties  at  a  time,  as  in   Kansas  and  Dakota. 


TOURIST  TRAVEL  AND  IMMIGRATION.  85 


We  also  know  that  others  of  them   are  rich  because  of  their 
purchases  and  investments. 

It  was  an  old  adage  that  each  immigrant  was  worth  §1,000 
to  us  on  landing  at  the  Battery. 

Now  to  be  liberal,  let  us  assume  that  the  whole  Italian  and 
Austrian  immigration  are  paupers,  and  to  be  more  liberal  let 
us  deduct  the  125,955  steerage  passengers  that  went  to  Europe 
from  the  total  of  immigrants,  and  it  still  leaves  us  a  balance 
of  290,618  desirable  and  well-provided  immigrants,  of  which 
24,707  come  over  as  first-class  passengers.  Let  us  figure 
more  liberally  again  and  assume  that  they  only  brought  $400 
apiece,  and  it  will  easily  be  shown  why  this  country  has 
accumulated  more  gold  than  the  Treasury  Department  figures 
explain  in  detail,  because  this  would  amount  to  the  enormous 
sum  of  §116,248,200  brought  in  last  year  by  these  immigrants, 
and  when  we  deduct  the  $66,518,000  from  this  amount  it  leaves 
a  balance  in  our  favor  from  travel  and  immigration  of 
849,729,200,  accumulation  during  1891. 

As  long  as  by  our  laws  and  actions  we  keep  prosperous, 
this  tide  of  immigration  will  continue  our  way,  and  it  will 
more  than  offset  the  expenditures  of  our  tourist  travel.  It  is 
in  this  as  in  every  other  phase  of  the  silver  question  that  the 
statistics  of  the  Treasury  Department  prove  that  it  is  better 
for  this  country  to  have  free  coinage  of  silver,  and  not  a  figure 
presented  by  their  reports  shows  the  least  danger  in  such  a 
move. 


CHAPTER    XII. 


CERTIFICATES 


The  present  system  of  certificates  comes  to  us  from  Eng- 
land, and  is  entirely  wrong.  It  is  an  attempt  to  centralize 
finance,  and  unamerican.  It  has  enabled  the  different  Secre- 
taries of  the  Treasury  to  misrepresent  silver,  and  they  have 
continued  to  do  so  in  every  way.  During  Cleveland's  admin- 
istration, we  were  continually  informed  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  that  the  silver  would  not  circulate,  and  a  great  many 
people  have  imbibed  that  idea  from  the  talk  that  was  and  is 
made  over  that  feature  of  the  question.  When  silver  coinage 
was  commenced  and  it  was  decided  to  issue  the  silver  certifi- 
cates and  keep  the  coin  in  the  Treasury,  it  was  merely  a  ruse  by 
Wall  Street  to  prevent  the  circulation  of  silver;  it  was  a  fraud. 
While  we  hear  that  silver  would  not  circulate,  we  find  that  of 
the  vast  coinage  amounting  to  412,535,360  standard  silver 
dollars,  there  are  $58,471,743  actually  in  circulation,  while  there 
are  $325,683,149  in  silver  certificates  issued  on  the  balance  and 
in  circulation,  (see  report  of  Treasury  department  April  i,  92,) 
leaving  in  actual  use  all  of  the  vast  coinage  except  $28,380,468, 
and  that  amount  should  be  paid  out  of  the  Treasury  on  bal- 
ance at  once,  and  not  gold. 

No  man  can  refuse  the  standard  silver  dollar,  and  the  Sec- 
retary of  the  Treasury  knows  it  well.  He  pays  out  gold  to  dis- 
credit silver,  that  is  all. 

I  attach  his  report  of  the  position  of  our  currency. 


CERTIFICATES. 


87 


STATEMENT    SHOWING   THE   AMOUNTS    OF    GOLD    AND    SILVER 
COINS  AND  CERTIFICATES,  UNITED  STATES  NOTES 
AND  NATIONAL  BANK  NOTES,  IN  CIR- 
CULATION APRIL  I,  i8q2. 


GENERAL  STOCK 

COINED 

OR    ISSUED. 


IN  TREASURY. 


Gold  Coin 

Standard  Silver  Dollars 

Subsidiary  Silver 

Gold  Certificates 

Silver  Certificates 

Treasurj(  Notes,  Act  July  14,  1890 

United  htates  Notes 

Cury  Cer'f's,  Act  June  8,  1872... 
National  Bank  Notes 

Totals 


$  606,564 
412,535. 

77,294. 
178,002, 
329.272, 

89,602, 
346,681, 

31,220, 
172,529, 


310  00 
360  00 
571  00 
999  00 
852  00 
198  00 
016  00 
,000  00 
431  00 


$2,243,702,757  00 


198,949,892  00 

354,063,617  00 

14,746,917  00 

23,673.770  00 

3,589,703  00 

11,996,78s  00 

22,776,054  00 

1,380,000  00 

3,884,496  00 


$    635.061,237  00 


AMOUNT  IN  CIR- 
CULATION 
APRIL  I,  1892. 


AMOUNT  IN  CIR- 
CULATION 
APRIL  1,  1S91. 


Gold  Coin 

Standard  Silver  Dollars 

Subsidiary  Silver 

Gold  Certificates 

Silver  Certificates 

Treas'y  Notes,  .\ct  July  14,  1890. 

L'nitetl  States  Notes 

Cur'y  Cert'l's,  Act  June  8,  1872. . 
National  Bank  Notes 


Totals. 


407,614, 
58,471, 

62,547.' 
154.329, 
325,083, 

77,605, 
323.904. 

29,840, 
168.644, 


$1,608,641 


418 

00 

743 

00 

654 

00 

229 

00 

149 

00 

,410 

00 

962 

00 

,000 

00 

.955 

00 

,52000 

$     408,468,850  00 
62,921,010  00 

^7,2:4,002    CO 

144,317.069  00 
309,632,535  00 

33.92 J. 973  00 

\      345.'75.«9H  00 

168,389,827  00 

$  1,530,080,464  00 


"Population  of  the  United  States  April  i,  1892,  estimated  at  65,168,000;  circu- 
lation per  capita,  $24.68." 

Now  the  issue  of  certificates  by  the  United  .States  is  all 
wronjj  in  finance.  The  Government  of  the  United  .States 
should  coin  money  only  as  a  factor,  and  not  as  a  principal. 
It  should  be  left  to  banking;  institutions  to  establish  and  retju- 
latc  the  volume  of  currency.  It  would  then  ^tow  up  in  tlie 
country  in  such  a  way  as  to  meet  the  wants  of  trade.  Instead 
of  the  novernment  issuing;  a  certificate,  and  storing;  up  vast 
hoards  of  precious  metal  at  one  or  two  points,  it  should  only 
coin  the  money,  and  then  allow  banks  that  wish  to  issue  notes 
to  deposit  coin  at  reserve  points  to  be  re^'ulated  by  law,  and 
the  banks  then  issue  the  bills  or  pnpcr  r  iirrcncv  b.ised  thereon. 


88  CERTIFICATES. 


Then  the  growth  of  our  currency  would  expand  as  trade  would 
require,  and  instead  of  one  great  stock  of  bullion  stored  in 
Washington  and  New  York,  inviting  pillage  and  war  when  it 
accumulates  to  over  $1,000,000,000,  whicli  it  soon  will:  it 
would  be  distributed  all  over  the  country  and  near  the  people 
who  use  it. 

The  silver  men  do  not  want  tlie  Government  to  buy  tlieir 
silver.  They  only  want  it  to  be  coined  the  same  as  the 
constitution  intended  it  should  be  done.  If  silver  is  plenty 
it  will  make  plenty  to  the  nation,  and  by  distributing 
the  reserves  as  I  propose,  the  coin  will  be  so  among  the 
people  that  it  can  never  be  separated  from  us.  This  state- 
ment shows  that  but  $168,644,955  of  our  circulation  is  derived 
from  our  banking  institutions,  where  it  should  show  that 
private  bankers  were  furnishing  the  credit  and  currency  for 
three-fourtiis  of  our  business.  This  circulation  is  kept  out 
based  on  securities  of  the  government,  on  which  the  people 
pay  interest,  and  which  are  of  paper,  while  our  whole  fabric  of 
currency  should  be  based  on  precious  metal  when  it  could  be 
so  arranged. 

The  issue  of  8325,683,149  in  treasury  notes  is  all  wrong,  as 
it  is  a  forced  loan  from  the  people;  but  it  would  so  contract 
the  currency  if  called  in  that  it  would  bring  disaster  to  attempt 
it.  They  should  not  be  renewed;  let  them  wear  out,  and  only 
return  coin  for  those  that  come  back  mutilated  or  destroyed, 
thus  gradually  reducing  them. 

The  present  capacity  of  our  mints  arc  but  45,000,000  silver 
dollars  per  year.  They  should  be  increased  by  additional 
mints  to  be  able  to  coin  all  of  our  production.  There  should 
be  one  established  in  Colorado,  and  reserve  points  for  coin 
should  be  established  in  the  Western  cities,  in  which  bankers 
could  deposit  coin  and  receive  authority  to  issue  notes 
thereon.  If  Wall  street  antagonizes  the  Western  interests 
much  more  this  will  be  done,  and  then  their  control  of  cur- 
rency and  circulating  medium  will  be  ended.  The  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  would  be  relieved  of  all  care  in  regard  to  that 
part  of  our  finances,  and  the  Executive  Department  should 
return  to  its  position  as  intended  by  our  constitution,  /.  e.,  look 
after  the  collection  of  the  revenues  and  the  payment  of 
necessary  expenditures,  as  servants  of  \\\v   people,  and  allow 


CERTIFICATES.  89 


the  natural  course  of  trade  to  expand  and  contract  the 
currency  as  its  wants  would  require. 

A  President  should  be  frowned  down  that  would  dare  to 
set  up  his  will  as  against  the  people  in  an  economic  measure; 
it  is  beyond  his  province.  It  is  his  place  with  his  assistants  to 
attend  to  the  detail  of  the  business  of  our  Government.  He 
has  no  right  to  a  "policy"  and  shows  his  weakness  when  he 
assumes  to  impress  his  ideas  on  the  people.  He  usually  is  a 
politician  unused  to  business  ways,  and  knows  very  little  of 
abstract  finance;  or  a  lawyer  with  theories  and  hobbies  that 
he  thinks  are  popular  or  vote-catching.  As  a  business  man,  a 
lawyer  is  usually  a  failure,  and  our  past  two  presidents  were 
men  of  absolutely  no  business  training,  and  have  been  the 
most  liberal  in  assuming  to  dictate  to  the  people  on  this 
question.  Are  they  paid  by  the  money-lenders,  or  are  they 
honest  in  their  convictions? 

Should  their  advice  be  followed  our  mines  for  precious 
metals  would  close  down. 

The  decline  of  every  nation  in  the  world  lias  (  omnicnccd 
when  its  mines  have  stopped  producing.  It  is  the  turning 
point  from  civilization  backward  in  every  country.  It  means 
paralysis  to  every  other  industry 


CHAPTER    XIII. 


CONCLUSION. 


I  hope  that  in  the  foregoing  chapters  I  have  shown: 

First — That  all  nations  that  have  become  possessed  of  the 
balance  of  trade  and  control  of  the  precious  metals,  have  as- 
sumed to  dictate  their  value  by  law,  the  only  way  that  precious 
metals  should  be  valued. 

Second— T\\-A.\.  the  United  States  have  arrived  to  that  dis- 
tinction, and  that  it  is  only  the  greed  of  the  money-lenders  that 
restrains  us  from  assuming  the  position  that  we  should 
assume  in  the  matter, 

Third — That  with  free  coinage  of  silver,  or  any  other  mon- 
etary action  on  our  part,  as  long  as  this  balance  of  trade  con- 
tinues in  our  favor,  it  is  as  perfectly  safe. 

Fourth — That  Gresham's  law  is  a  myth  in  a  country  that 
is  selling  more  than  she  buys,  and  to  which  other  nations  are 
paying  money. 

Fifth — That  by  our  country  throwing  a  little  surplus  of  sil- 
ver on  the  European  market,  it  has  assisted  in  robbing  our 
farmers,  planters,  railroads,  and  all  classes  of  labor,  of  mill- 
ions on  millions  of  dollars. 

Sixth — ^That  tlic  free  coinage  of  silver  would  at  once  stop 
the  Indian  wheat  and  cotton  competition  with  our  farmers  and 
planters,  and  create  great  prosperity  in  this  country. 

Seventh — That  with  the  free  coinage  of  silver  and  an 
assertion  of  our  proper  position  in  the  financial  world  we  can 
make  the  American  dollar  the  unit  of  value  in  all  the  new  and 
progressing  countries,  whose  trade  will  grow  and  increase  in 
value. 

What  a  great  future  there  is  for  the  United  States  if  it 
grasps  the  situation,  declares  for  free  coinage  of  silver,  stamps 
all  the  silver  brought  to  its  mints  and  makes  it  money,  (not 
buy  it,  but  stamp  it,)  and  then  discriminate  against  any  country 


CONCLUSION.  91 


that  does  not  recognize  our  rij^ht  to  declare  the  value  of  the 
precious  metal. 

Not  a  nation  in  the  world  dare  dispute  our  right  and  power 
to  so  assert  their  value,  and  the  coinage  of  America  would  be 
recognized  all  over  the  world,  and  supplant  the  English  pound 
as  a  medium  of  exchange. 

Citizens  of  America,  it  is  time  to  assert  your  independence 
of  the  money-lenders  and  English  influences.  It  is  time  that 
you  check  this  system  of  robbery  that  is  going  on  through  the 
demonetization  of  silver. 

It  is  unamerican  and  imbecile  to  submit  to  injustice.  The 
prosperity  of  your  country  is  at  issue,  and  you  should  examine 
the  facts  presented,  and  by  your  personal  action  do  what  you 
can  to  prevent  disaster  to  every  interest  of  our  people. 

I  speak  to  no  party,  no  division  of  people;  the  whole  nation 
is  interested.  It  should  cement  the  North,  the  South,  the 
East,  the  West.  The  money-lender  himself  would  be 
benefitted,  but  it  would  sound  the  death  knell  of  England's 
monetary  supremacy.  It  would  place  our  nation  where  it 
belongs. 

There  is  no  question  before  the  people  so  vital  as 

Thi-:  Fki:e  Coinage  of  Silver. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Preface ^ '  '"^ 

CHAPTER    I. 
Historical '^~^ 

The  Use  of  Silver  and  Gold  as  Money,  and  Why,  3,  4. 

How  the  Ratio  of  Values  has  been  Determined,  4,  5. 

Value  of  Gold  only  Regulated  by  Law,  5,  6. 

Coins  and  their  Uses,  (>-8. 

CHAPTER    n. 

Demoxetization ^-^^ 

New  School  of  Finance.  10-12. 
America  Following  England's  Dictation.  12.13. 
Contraction  of  Currency  Natural  Result  of  Demoneti- 
zation, 13-15. 

CHAPTER    HI. 

Mistakes 10-22 

Allowing  Wall  Street  and  England  to  Dictate.  19,  20. 
Supposed  Greatness  of  Some  Financiers.  21,  22. 

CHAPTER    IV. 

"Gresuam's  Law" 23-33 

Gold  does  not  Leave  the  United  States,  24-26. 
Why  it  does  not.  26-28. 
America's  Time  to  Dictate  Values.  28-30. 
Why  Silver  would  not  be  Dumiied  Here,  30-33. 

CHAPTER    V. 

Losses 34-42 

What  the  Farmers  and  Planters  have  Lost,  34-39. 
What  the  Railroads  have  Lost,  39-41. 
What  the  Miners  have  Lost.  41,  42. 

CHAPTER    VL 

Cost  of  Silver  Production 43-.50 

Boom  Literature,  49.  50. 


CONTENTS.  93 


CHAPTER    VII. 
International  Conference 51-54 

CHAPTER   VIII. 
Tariff  and  Free  Coinage 55-57 

CHAPTER    IX. 

Balance  of  Trade  58-78 

Balances  with  Europe.  61 -()">. 
Balances  with  South  America,  65-69. 
Balances  with  Cuba,  69,  70. 
Balances  with  Mexico.  70-73. 
Balances  with  Central  America,  73.  74. 
Balances  with  Asia  and  Oceanica,  75-77. 
Balances  with  British  America,  77.  7S. 
Balances  with  Africa.  78. 

CHAPTER    X. 

Movements  of  Precious  Metai 79-82 

Imports  of  Gold  and  Silver,  79. 
Exports  of  Gold  and  Silver,  80-82. 

CHAPTER    XI. 
Toi'RiST  Travel  and  Immigration    83-85 

CHAPTER    XII. 
Certificates 86-89 

CHAPTER   XI II. 
CoNci.t'sios 90,  91 


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